Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area

Common name: Portland metropolitan area
Largest city	Portland, Oregon (583,776)
Other cities	Vancouver (161,791) Gresham (105,594) Hillsboro (91,611)
Population	Ranked 23rd in the U.S.
- Total	2,226,009
- Density	333/sq. mi.  129/km²
Area	6,684 sq. mi. 17,310 km²
Country	United States
State(s)	Oregon Washington
Elevation
- Highest point	N/A feet (N/A m)
- Lowest point	N/A feet (N/A m)

The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), also known as the Portland metropolitan area, the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area or Greater Portland, is an urban area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered around the city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Census Bureau's definition for the MSA is currently all of the following counties: Clackamas County, Oregon; Columbia County, Oregon; Multnomah County, Oregon; Washington County, Oregon; Yamhill County, Oregon; Clark County, Washington; and Skamania County, Washington.^[1] The Washington counties are separated from Oregon by the Columbia River.

The Oregon portion of the metropolitan area is the state's largest urban center. Portions of this are under the jurisdiction of Metro,^[2] a directly elected regional government which, among other things, is responsible for land use planning in the region.

Metropolitan statistical area[link]

The Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the 23rd largest in the United States,^[3][4] has a population of 2,226,009 (2010 Census). Of them, 1,789,580 live in Oregon (46.7% of the state's population) while the rest 436,429 live in Washington (6.7% of state's population). It consists of Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Columbia and Yamhill counties in Oregon, as well as Clark and Skamania counties in Washington. The area includes Portland and the neighboring cities of Beaverton, Gresham, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, Lake Oswego, Oregon City, Fairview, Wood Village, Troutdale, Tualatin, Tigard, West Linn, Vancouver, Camas and Washougal.

Before the 2003–2004 redefinition of metropolitan boundaries, the Portland Consolidated Metropolitan Area included the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area.^[5] If still considered a part of the metropolitan area the population would be 2,637,944 (2009 estimate).^[6] Combined population close connected Portland, Salem and Longview metropolitan areas^{[clarification needed]} is 2,739,910 (2009 estimate).^[6]

Changes in house prices for the metro area are publicly tracked on a regular basis using the Case–Shiller index; the statistic is published by Standard & Poor's and is also a component of S&P's 20-city composite index of the value of the U.S. residential real estate market.

Cities and other communities[link]

Transportation[link]

Portland is where Interstate 84 ends at Interstate 5, both major highways in the Pacific Northwest. Other primary roads include Interstate 205, an eastern bypass of the urban core, U.S. Route 26, which heads west and southeast, U.S. Route 30, which goes to the northwest, and Oregon Route 217, which connects US 26 with I-5 in the south, travelling through Beaverton. Both US 26 and US 30 go to the Oregon Coast. Also, Washington State Route 14 travels along the northern banks of the Columbia River from downtown Vancouver east to Camas and Washougal.

Transit service on the Oregon side is generally provided by TriMet. In addition, Sandy Area Metro serves Sandy, South Clackamas Transportation District serves nearby Molalla, Canby Area Transit serves Canby and South Metro Area Regional Transit serves Wilsonville. Service in Clark County is provided by C-TRAN. In Columbia County, the Columbia County Rider provides transit service on weekdays connecting St. Helens with downtown Portland and connecting Scappoose and St. Helens with certain points in urban Washington County, including the PCC Rock Creek campus, Tanasbourne and the Willow Creek MAX light rail station.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Metro government website
• Portland MSA 2010 Census numbers from the Population Resource Center
• pdx.edu/media/p/r/PRC_2007_Population_Report2_rev.pdf of key urban planning documents on the Portland Metropolitan area, at Portland State University

v t e  State of Oregon Salem (capital) Topics History Geography Climate People Governors Government Delegations Constitution Congress Ballot measures Elections Parks Fair Symbols Oregon Trail Rivers Misc. Society Culture Crime Demographics Economy Education Politics Regions The Cascades Central Oregon Columbia Gorge Columbia Plateau Columbia River Eastern Oregon Harney Basin High Desert Inland Empire Mount Hood Corridor Oregon Coast Palouse Portland Metro Rogue Valley Southern Oregon Treasure Valley Tualatin Valley Western Oregon Willamette Valley Metros Bend-Redmond Coos Bay-North Bend Eugene-Springfield Medford-Ashland Portland Salem-Keizer Cities Albany Astoria Baker City Beaverton Brookings Coos Bay Corvallis Florence Grants Pass Gresham Hillsboro Hood River Independence Klamath Falls La Grande Lake Oswego Lakeview Madras McMinnville Milwaukie Monmouth Newberg Newport Ontario Oregon City Pendleton Prineville Roseburg Sandy The Dalles Tigard Tillamook Tualatin Umatilla West Linn Wilsonville Woodburn Counties Baker Benton Clackamas Clatsop Columbia Coos Crook Curry Deschutes Douglas Gilliam Grant Harney Hood River Jackson Jefferson Josephine Klamath Lake Lane Lincoln Linn Malheur Marion Morrow Multnomah Polk Sherman Tillamook Umatilla Union Wallowa Wasco Washington Wheeler Yamhill

v t e  State of Washington Olympia (capital) Topics State government Cities Towns Congressional delegation City governments Governors History Geography People Legislative initiatives Popular initiatives Legislature Music Parks Highways Symbols Visitor attractions Society Demographics Economy Education Politics Regions Western Washington Kitsap Peninsula Long Beach Peninsula Olympic Peninsula Puget Sound San Juan Islands Skagit Valley Eastern Washington/Inland Empire Central Washington Columbia Plateau Okanogan Country Palouse Yakima Valley Shared Cascade Range Columbia Gorge Columbia River Larger cities and metropolitan areas Seattle Seattle metropolitan area Spokane Tacoma Tri-Cities Vancouver Bellevue Everett Yakima Smaller cities Aberdeen Anacortes Arlington Auburn Bainbridge Island Battle Ground Bellingham Bonney Lake Bothell Bremerton Burien Camas Centralia Cheney Cle Elum Coupeville Covington Des Moines East Wenatchee Edmonds Ellensburg Enumclaw Federal Way Fort Lewis Grandview Hoquiam Issaquah Kelso Kenmore Kennewick Kent Kirkland Lacey Lake Forest Park Lake Stevens Lakewood Langley Longview Lynden Lynnwood Mabton Maple Valley Marysville Mercer Island Mill Creek Monroe Moses Lake Mountlake Terrace Mount Vernon Mukilteo Naches Oak Harbor Olympia Pasco Port Angeles Port Orchard Port Townsend Prosser Pullman Puyallup Redmond Renton Richland Sammamish SeaTac Sedro-Woolley Selah Shelton Shoreline Silverdale Spokane Valley Sunnyside Toppenish Tukwila Tumwater University Place Walla Walla Wapato Washougal Wenatchee West Richland Woodinville Zillah Counties Adams Asotin Benton Chelan Clallam Clark Columbia Cowlitz Douglas Ferry Franklin Garfield Grant Grays Harbor Island Jefferson King Kitsap Kittitas Klickitat Lewis Lincoln Mason Okanogan Pacific Pend Oreille Pierce San Juan Skagit Skamania Snohomish Spokane Stevens Thurston Wahkiakum Walla Walla Whatcom Whitman Yakima

Coordinates: 45°30′N 122°39′W / 45.5°N 122.65°W / 45.5; -122.65

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Densely populated metropolitan area (Western Tokyo)

The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing.^[1] A metropolitan area usually comprises multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships, cities, exurbs, counties, and even states. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions.^[2]

General definition[link]

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Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina.

A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration (the contiguous, built-up area) with zones not necessarily urban in character, but closely bound to the center by employment or other commerce. These outlying zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban zone, to other political entities. For example, El Monte, California is considered part of the Los Angeles' metro area.

In practice, the parameters of metropolitan areas, in both official and unofficial usage, are not consistent. Sometimes they are little different from an urban area, and in other cases they cover broad regions that have little relation to a single urban settlement; comparative statistics for metropolitan area should take this into account. Population figures given for one metro area can vary by millions, and there is a tendency for people to promote the highest figure available for their own "city". However the most ambitious metropolitan area population figures are often better seen as the population of a "metropolitan region" than of a "city".^{[citation needed]}

There has been no significant change in the basic concept of metropolitan areas since its adoption in 1950,^[3] although significant changes in geographic distributions have occurred since then, and more are expected.^[4] Because of the fluidity of the term "metropolitan statistical area," the term used colloquially is more often "metro service area," "metro area," or "MSA" taken to include not only a city, but also surrounding suburban, exurban and sometimes rural areas, all which it is presumed to influence.

A polycentric metropolitan area is one not connected by continuous development or conurbation, which requires urban contiguity. In defining a metropolitan area, it is sufficient that a city or cities constitute a nucleus with which other areas have a high degree of integration.

Country official unique definitions[link]

Perth is arguably the most isolated metropolitan area in the world.^{[citation needed]}

Vancouver, on Canada's Pacific Coast

Paris, one of Europe's major centres

Istanbul, the only metropolitan area that spans two continents.

Mumbai, Financial Capital of India.

Chicago, on the Great Lakes.

Australia[link]

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The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines 'statistical divisions' as areas under the unifying influence of one or more major towns or a major city.^[5] Each of the state and territory capital cities as well as the national capital, Canberra, forms its own statistical division, and the population of the statistical division is the figure most often quoted for that city's population. However, this definition has largely become obsolete with the conurbation of several statistical divisions into a larger metropolitan areas. For example, the City of Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, has long since become contiguous with the surrounding cities of Ipswich, Logan City, Redland City, Redcliffe, Pine Rivers, Caboolture and the Gold Coast. This conurbation is common to all the major metropolitan areas of Australia which include all the capital cities and many major regional centres such as the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong, Geelong, Townsville, Cairns and Toowoomba.

Canada[link]

Statistics Canada defines a census metropolitan area (CMA) and census agglomeration (CA) as areas consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core. To form a CMA, the metropolitan area must have a population of at least 100,000, at least half within the urban core. To form a CA, the urban core must have a population of at least 10,000. To be included in the CMA or CA, adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the core, as measured by commuter flows derived from census data.^[6]

European Union[link]

The European Union's statistical agency, Eurostat, has created a concept named Larger Urban Zone (LUZ). The LUZ represents an attempt at a harmonised definition of the metropolitan area, and the goal was to have an area from a significant share of the resident commute into the city, a concept known as the “functional urban region”.^[7]

France[link]

In France the term for the region around an urban core linked by commuting ties is an aire urbaine (officially translated as "urban area").^{[citation needed]}

Turkey[link]

The word metropolitan, describes a major city in Turkey like Istanbul, a city which is dominant to others both in financially and socially.^[8] There are 16 officially defined "state metropolitan areas" in Turkey, for governing purposes.^[9] More than ten of these metropolitan areas are populated with more than one million people: Istanbul (10+ Million), Ankara (4+ Million), Izmir (3+ Million), Bursa (2+ Million), Adana, Gaziantep, Konya, Antalya, Samsun, Kayseri and Mersin.

Istanbul-Kocaeli-Sakarya-Yalova-Bursa metropolitan areas, almost continuously inhabited, form one single megalopolitan area around the eastern part of Marmara Sea, with total population of almost 20 Million and with the combined economy of US$750 Billion. Istanbul metropolitan area itself has a population of 12+ Million and an economy of almost US$500 Billion.

India[link]

Rajarhat which is in the city of Kolkata is a newly established township, consisting of gated high rise apartment complexes. In this image, Uniworld City, a mini-township

In India, the Census Commission defines a metropolitan city one having a population of over 4 million.^[10] Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Siliguri , Pune, and Ahmedabad are the Indian cities that qualify. Residents of these cities are also entitled to a higher house rent allowance. The figure only applies to the city region and not the conurbation.^{[citation needed]}

Israel[link]

In Israel there are 4 metropolitan areas: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba. Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area in late 2005 numbered about three million inhabitants. This is a center of metropolitan employment and business in Israel. Today, some argue that the Tel Aviv metropolitan area - Gush Dan, will be deployed in future from Hadera to Gedera (for all "rings" - inner, middle and outer).^{[citation needed]}

Japan[link]

In Japan a metropolitan area would be toshiken (都市圏^?, lit. block of cities).^{[citation needed]}

United States[link]

The Office of Management and Budget defines Core Based Statistical Areas used for statistics purposes among federal agencies. Each CBSA is based on a core urban area and is composed of the counties which comprise that core as well as any surrounding counties that are tightly socially or economically integrated with it. These areas are designated as either metropolitan or micropolitan statistical areas, based on population size; a "metro" area has an urban core of at least 50,000 residents, while a "micro" area has fewer than 50,000 but at least 10,000.^[11]

Megalopolis[link]

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This concept of a "megalopolis" was first proposed by the French geographer Jean Gottmann in his book Megalopolis, a study of the northeastern United States. One prominent example of a megalopolis is the Northeast megalopolis consisting of Boston, Hartford, Greater New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and their vicinities. Two other prominent megalopolises in North America are as follows:

1. In California and Baja California, Ventura County, Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego County, part of Riverside County, part of San Bernardino County, Tijuana Municipality, Rosarito Beach Municipality, Mexicali Municipality, and Tecate Municipality. There are hundreds of cities and towns in this megalopolis, with the largest ones being Los Angeles, Long Beach, Irvine, Anaheim, San Diego, and Tijuana.
2. The bi-national Great Lakes Megalopolis consists of the group of North American metropolitan areas surrounding the Great Lakes region within the Midwestern United States, Southern Ontario, and parts of Pennsylvania, New York, and Quebec. The region extends from the Milwaukee–Chicago corridor to the Detroit–Toronto corridor, and includes Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Erie, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Louisville, Ottawa, Rochester, and Toledo, reaching as far as Pittsburgh and St. Louis. The region had an estimated population of 54 million for the 2000 Census and is projected to reach about 65 million by 2025.

The world's largest megalopolis is probably is the Taiheiyō Belt (the Pacific megalopolis) of Japan on southeastern Honshu that consists of the metropolis of Tokyo, Shizuoka, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Okayama, Yokosuka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kure, and their surrounding cities and towns. Major means of ground transportation in Japan such as its railroad network (for both passengers and freight), many expressways, and the "Shinkansen" bullet train are concentrated in this region, which also includes the northern shore of the Inland Sea of Japan. This is a highly-industrialized part of Japan, and it is also the location of its most important seaports in Japan - such as at Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, and Kure - and its most important international airports - such as at Tokyo and Osaka. The population of this megalopolis can be considered to be as high as 83 million people, depending on where one draws its boundaries.

Guangdong Province's Pearl River Delta is a megalopolis with a population of 48 million that extends from Hong Kong and Shenzhen to Guangzhou. Some projections assume that by 2030 up to 1 billion people will live in China's urban areas. Even rather conservative projections predict an urban population of up to 800 million people. In its most recent assessment, the UN Population Division estimated an urban population of 1 billion in 2050.^[12]

The megalopolises in Europe are the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region (pop. 11.5 million) in Germany, the Milan metropolitan area (pop. 7.4 million) in Italy, the Randstad in the Netherlands (pop. 7.4 million), the Flemish Diamond in Belgium (pop. 5.5 million), Ile de France in France and the metropolitan area of London and Moscow, as well as several 'smaller' agglomerations, such as the Meuse-Rhine Euregion, the Ems-Dollart Region, the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Euregion and Metropoly of Upper Silesia in Poland (17 cities around Katowice with a total population of over 2 million). Together this megalopolis has an estimated population of around 50 million. In Turkey, multiple cities around Istanbul, Istanbul-Kocaeli-Sakarya-Yalova-Bursa metropolitan areas, almost continuously inhabited, form one single megalopolitan area to the east of Istanbul around the eastern part of Marmara Sea, with total population of almost 20 Million and with the combined economy of US$750 Billion.

It has been suggested^[who?] that most of southeastern England, the Midlands and parts of northern England will someday evolve into a megalopolis dominated by London.^{[citation needed]} Clearly when usage is stretched this far, it is remote from the traditional conception of a city.^{[citation needed]}

Africa's first megalopolis is situated in the urban portion of Gauteng Province in South Africa, comprising the conurbation of Johannesburg, and the metropolitan areas of Pretoria and the Vaal Triangle, otherwise known as the PWV.

Megacity is a general term for metropolitan areas which usually have a total population in excess of ten million people. In Canada, "megacity" can also refer informally to the results of merging a central city with its suburbs to form one large municipality. A Canadian "megacity", however, is not necessarily an entirely urbanized area, since many of its named "cities" have both rural and urban portions. Also, 10 million inhabitants is an unreasonably high number for Canada. Moreover, Canadian "megacities" do not constitute large metropolitan areas in a global sense. For example, Toronto has a metropolitan population of about five million people, but is part of a much larger metropolitan region called the Golden Horseshoe, which has about eight million people.

The census population of a metro area is not the city population. However, it better demonstrates the population of the city. Los Angeles may only have a city population of slightly less than four million, but depending on the definition, it has a metropolitan area population of either 13 million, or 18 million people in its combined statistical area. A major question is whether or not to include San Diego and Tijuana.

See also[link]

• Developed environments
• Economic restructuring
• Metropolitan Statistical Area
• metropolitan economy
• Urban sprawl

Metropolitan Planning Theories[link]

• New Urbanism
• Smart growth
• Transit-oriented development

Terms[link]

Lists of metropolitan areas[link]

• List of metropolitan areas that overlap multiple countries
• List of metropolitan areas by population
  • List of urban areas by population

References[link]

External links[link]

• Metropolis.org, An organisation of world metropolises
• Urban Employment Areas in Japan (Metropolitan Employment Areas in Japan)
• Turismo.fvg.it, (Metropolis read by maps in Friuli Venezia Giulia - Northeast of Italy - EU)
• Geopolis : research group, university of Paris-Diderot, France — Urbanization of the world

A natural landscape is a landscape that is unaffected by human activity.^[1] A natural landscape is intact when all living and nonliving elements are free to move and change.^[2] The nonliving elements distinguish a natural landscape from a wilderness. A wilderness includes areas within which natural processes operate without human interference, but a wilderness must contain life. As implied, a natural landscape may contain either the living or nonliving or both. In his extensive travels in South America, Alexander von Humbolt^[3] became the first to conceptualize a natural landscape.^[4] Some have described a transition of a pristine landscape state to a humanized landscape state—which includes the human-modified landscape, the primeval landscape, the ancient landscape, the undisturbed wilderness and the managed landscape.^[5] The natural landscape is a place under the current control of natural forces and free of the control of people for an extended period of time.

"For here the natural landscape is eloquent of the interplay of forces that have created it. It is spread before us like the pages of an open book...", Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, 1962.

History of natural landscape[link]

No place on earth is unaffected by people and our culture. However, there is no place on earth that cannot return to natural landscape if abandoned by culture. People are part of biodiversity, but people exert forces on biodiversity, which destroy the natural landscape. Terms such as semi-natural are used to describe landscapes with both cultural and natural features. People have altered landscape to such an extent that few places on earth remain pristine. Being pristine, though, is not a prerequisite for natural landscape designation. Once abandoned by human influences, the landscape is again under the control of natural processes which accommodate interruptions, resulting in a new variant of the natural landscape.^[6]

Examples of cultural forces[link]

Cultural forces are those that, intentionally or unintentionally, influence the landscape.^[7] Cultural landscapes are places or artifacts currently maintained by people whether directly or indirectly. Examples of cultural disruptions are: fences, roads, trails, species under human management, invasive species introduced by people, extraction or removal of species and objects, vegetation alteration, alterations of animal populations, natural landscaping, buildings, agricultural areas, pollution, paved areas. Areas that may be confused with natural landscape include parks for people, agricultural areas, orchards, maintained views (use of aesthetic judgments), artificial lakes, managed forests, golf courses, nature center trails, back yards, and flower beds.

The conflict between cultural forces and the natural landscape[link]

For a place to return to the natural landscape, all cultural artifacts attracting people must be removed. Natural landscape is the equilibrium that existed prior to significant human impact. The time necessary for an area to return to the natural landscape depends upon the environment, and it may be termed the period of neglect. Neglect, in this context, means the absence of any management whatsoever. Most people can easily recognize a neglected landscape. Human impact on the natural landscape may result in episodes of extinction of native species, episodes of stalled equilibrium, total species destruction and even the putrification of soil and water.

The case for returning land to the natural landscape has been championed by those who recognize the harm resulting from people’s actions on this planet. Popular movies such as Avatar (2009 film) [1] and Life After People focus on potential natural landscape controls or lack thereof. The return of the natural landscape has been opposed by those who wish to groom the natural landscape or simply to demonstrate that the natural landscape has some practical value.

See also[link]

• Cityscapes
• Landscape art
• Mother Earth
• Natural environment
• Panorama
• Seascapes
• Skyscape art
• Soundscape

References[link]