231658 Mountain megaregions: A policy prescription

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 : 11:30 AM - 11:50 AM

Robert Lang, PhD , Brookings Mountain West, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vega, NV
Lang will address how Brookings has published since 1996 on the health and prosperity of metropolitan areas and their components (www.brookings.edu/metro). Seventy per cent of the economic and population growth in the United States is forecast for the 10-12 megaregions of the country, such as the Front Range which includes the Denver metropolitan region. Not all metros are expected to grow at the same rate (primarily births, immigration, and domestic in-migration), however, nor experience the stresses related to natural resource depletion or shortages, transportation, unemployment, housing stock and affordability, population health, impacts of climate change and the like. Using the examples from the involved states of the southern intermountain region (sprawling parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah), He will discuss characteristics of the five megaregions of the western United States and their collective potential impact, including political, as a new Heartland of America.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Identify policy areas of concern with regard to the high per cent of foreign immigrants residing in the five Mountain megaregions.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As as urban planning and policy expert, I have focused on Lang focuses on suburban studies, demographic and spatial analysis, economic development, metropolitan governance, transportation, the "built environment," and the Intermountain West. I am a professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, co-director of Brookings Mountain West and director of the Lincy Foundation.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.