Jean Gottmann

Jean Gottmann is famous for popularizing the term 'Megalopolis' to describe a massive, interconnected urban region. He used this concept to analyze the densely urbanized corridor along the northeastern United States. This specific region stretches continuously from the Boston area through New York down to Washington, D.C.

In 1961, Jean Gottmann published the highly influential book titled 'Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States'. The book was the result of a massive research study funded by the Twentieth Century Foundation. It forever changed how geographers and urban planners viewed the merging of adjacent metropolitan areas.

Jean Gottmann studied the highly populated northeastern seaboard of the United States to define his concept of Megalopolis. His specific research area covered the continuous chain of cities and suburbs from the Boston area through New York and down to Washington, D.C. He observed that this massive region functioned as a single, integrated economic network.

As a French geographer, Jean Gottmann's research heavily examined the organization of inhabited space, political territory, and modern cities. He was particularly interested in how massive urban populations and economic networks clustered together. His work laid the intellectual foundation for modern studies of urban sprawl and metropolitan conurbations.