Enhanced Analysis and Visualization of Metropolitan Scale Growth: Midwest, Chicago - Detailed Megapolitan Area Mapping (Phase 4)

Research Sponsor:

Toyota Research Institute—North America

TEMA, Ann Arbor, Michigan (TRI-NA)

Principal Investigators:

Alan M. Berger

Research Team:

Casey L. Brown

Abstract:

The focus of this research is to analyze urbanization growth patterns and associated mobility patterns in a U.S. metropolitan area where growth is at or below average in a Midwestern MSA location, to compliment research done already on Denver, Atlanta metros, which concluded that the trend toward expansion of the urbanized area, rather than densification, was likely to continue in those areas for several decades. This proposed study will probe whether those trends hold in older urban areas of below average growth. This MSA is situated in the Midwest region of the U.S.

One MSA will be chosen through a criteria selection similar to the previous MSA projects, but adapted to focus on low growth regions. The Chicago metro will be analyzed for the strategic measures of population/housing change, employment change and location, and major infrastructural usage measures. This project will seek to focus on answer questions of housing and employment locations directly, with a lower level of detail in the broader sets of data and mapping outputs than previous studies. Comparable measures to previous studies will be highly dependent on the data structure of the new MSA. Data availability will thus be a major final criterion for selection.

(Internal publication, 2013-14)