In an effort to promote a balanced growth strategy for the United States, Regional Plan Association and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy brought together two dozen scholars and economic development practitioners in March 2009 for an America 2050 research seminar to explore new economic development strategies for the nation's underperforming regions. The seminar gathered people with a range of expertise and diversity of backgrounds, including those from declining, post-industrial regions, rural and frontier communities, and experts in state and federal economic development policy to address strategies for declining places within the nation's emerging megaregions and in the spaces in between. Three research papers were developed for the seminar by Yoav Hagler, Robert Yaro, and Nicolas Ronderos of Regional Plan Association. They are collected in this new report along with a summary of the conversations that took place at the seminar.

Download "New Strategies for Regional Economic Development."

Climate change, underfunded infrastructure, outdated management approaches, and the pressures of urbanization are creating a looming crisis for America's water. Because of these multiple changes, a fundamental shift is needed from traditional, heavily engineered and segregated approaches to integrated, systems approaches that work with nature and provide multiple benefits. A new America 2050 working paper outlines preliminarily steps toward a new national water agenda including new financing strategies and recommendations for policy reform.
Download "A Systems Approach to Water Resources."
Image: flickr/La Citta Vitta

A new article appearing in the September issue of The Urbanist by Petra Todorovich addresses the role of megaregions in a national infrastructure plan and stresses the importance of regional cooperation around issues such as high-speed rail, large scale water infrastructure, and reviving regional economies. The article argues that a national infrastructure strategy that emanates solely from Washington would be deeply unpopular.  However, one that is built on collaboration between states and regions and identifies the needed investments for a more productive economy, healthy environment and inclusive society, is critical to address the country's current and future infrastructure needs. The article cites precedents, both historic and current, of megaregion-scale cooperation to address shared challenges and discusses how this national infrastructure strategy could take shape at the federal level. Click here to read the full article.

Defining the corridors in America that are most appropriate for high-speed rail service is critical to the long-term success of America's high-speed rail program. A new report by America 2050 offers one mechanism for assessing which potential high-speed rail corridors will have the greatest ridership demand based on population size, economic activity, transit connections, existing travel markets and urban spatial form and density.

The authors evaluate 27,000 city pairs in the nation to create an index of city pairs with the greatest demand for high-speed rail service. The paper provides a list of the top 50 city pairs, which are primarily concentrated in the Northeast, California, and the Midwest, and provides recommendations for phasing corridor development in the nation's megaregions.

Download the full report (PDF 3.2MB)

Download the Press Release.

View an Interactive Map of America 2050's proposed phasing plan for a national high speed rail network.

The Texas Triangle Megaregion faces many challenges similar to other fast-growing megaregions around the country. Rapid growth in population and diversity is expected in the coming decades that will put increasing pressures on natural resources and infrastructure.

A report released recently by the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture provides an overview of how the region may address these challenges; included is a brief history of the major cities within the megaregion.

To view the full report please click here.

Working Paper on Megaregions, Governance, and Finance

By Mark Pisano, Dan Mazmanian, Richard Little, Alison Linder, Bev Perry.

Download the Paper.

America is entering a tumultuous period unrivaled in recent history, in which we must confront a host of challenges including a deep recession, our nation's dependence on foreign oil, and the challenge of global survival because of climate change. To face these challenges, a transformation is needed to streamline and improve our systems of governance, planning and finance of the infrastructure systems necessary for the nation's sustainable growth. This paper calls for the adoption of a Strategic Investment Framework by the federal government that would evaluate infrastructure investments against a Triple Bottom Line of environmental health, social equity, and economic growth. The paper also proposes a new governance and decision-making process for megaregions, in which university-based Centers of Excellence would assist partnerships of local and state governments in outcome-based procurement for major infrastructure projects and project evaluation against the Triple Bottom Line performance criteria. 

It has been more than fifty years since the signing of the National Interstate and Defense Highway Act, which created a network of highways that tied the nation together. Today, America faces a new set of challenges and is in need of a new vision for our transportation system. Transportation for America, a broad coalition representing a range of local and national interests focused on modernizing the nation's transportation system, released The Route to Reform: Blueprint for a 21st Century Federal Transportation Program, a detailed plan for maintaining and expanding the nations transportation system.
 
In this "Blueprint", the coalition offers four main recommendations for the upcoming transportation authorization bill:

• Develop a New National Transportation Vision with Objectives and Accountability for Meeting Performance Targets.
• Restructure Federal Transportation Programs and Funding to Support the New National Transportation Vision and Objectives.
• Reform Transportation Agencies and the Decision-making Process.
• Revise Transportation Finance So We Can Pay for Needed Investments.

This document serves as T4 America's proposal for the policies and financing structures necessary to achieve real transformational change in America's transportation system
 
Download full blueprint (PDF 4.9MB)
 
Download Executive Summary (PDF 3.1MB)

Veracruz, 261 miles due east of Mexico City, is Mexico's most populous metropolitan region on the Gulf Coast.   It is also where the first confirmed case of the swine flu epidemic occurred.  As the death toll increased and we faced a potential pandemic, the Mexican health system struggled to monitor and contain the spread of the virus, and treat the ill.

Urban challenges such as these are the subject of the timely volume Century of the City - No Time to Lose, recently published by the Rockefeller Foundation, the result of its Global Urban Summit held in July 2007.  The Summit provided a platform for the examination of key infrastructure and planning issues as they relate to the growth of urban regions around the world--including in the United States and the Global South.  Topics covered in Century of the City include Urban Health; Financing Water, Transportation and Shelter; and Climate Change Resilience in the Global South, and America 2050; U.S. Transportation Challenges; and U.S. Metros: Building Blocks of America's Prosperity. 

You may order up to 2 free copies of the book from the Rockefeller Foundation here.