Abstract States and their counties or equivalents are the two major political geographies in the United States. National and State data is collected for these boundaries. When it comes to regional analysis, the states are too large and the counties too small. Metropolitan statistical areas reflect major regional economic relationships, but that focus leaves out the non-metro counties. A longitudinal analysis for MSAs over decades is not fruitful, since the underlying composition changes.
A geospatial unit of analysis that is used in many states and could be used nation-wide is the sub-state district, generically known as the regional council. Over half of the states have a complete system where the regional council is organized and may be a political subdivision. Long term analysis can be done for these State standard regions. The analyses can be used by these regions for programmatic purposes, such as economic development.
Data solutions exist for States with an incomplete system or no system. The products of these base analyses would contribute to the analysis and planning by making the existing regional networks more visible, enabling greater use of existing data and, for data like County Business Patterns, overcome confidentiality concerns through multi-county datasets. It also enables aggregation to multi-region datasets that fit the issue at hand, be it a watershed, transportation corridor or other significant geography, in state or multi-state. Today, most regional science practitioners have no awareness of the regional council networks that represent a market for their work.
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Thomas J. Christoffel, AICP, FeRSA Editor, Regional Community Development News
Regional Intelligence - Regional Communities, LLC Box 1444 * Front Royal, Virginia (VA 22630)
Draft as of: 6/7/2011
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Abstract - Introduction
States and their counties or equivalents are the two major political geographies in the United States. National and State data is collected for these boundaries. When it comes to regional analysis, the states are too large and the counties too small. Metropolitan statistical areas reflect major regional economic relationships, but that focus leaves out the non-metro counties. A longitudinal analysis for MSAs over decades is not fruitful, since the underlying composition changes.
A geospatial unit of analysis that is used in many states and could be used nation-wide is the sub-state district, generically known as the regional council. Over half of the states have a complete system where the regional council is organized and may be a political subdivision. Long term analysis can be done for these State standard regions. The analyses can be used by these regions for programmatic purposes, such as economic development.
Data solutions exist for States with an incomplete system or no system. The products of these base analyses would contribute to the analysis and planning by making the existing regional networks more visible, enabling greater use of existing data and, for data like County Business Patterns, overcome confidentiality concerns through multi-county datasets. It also enables aggregation to multi-region datasets that fit the issue at hand, be it a watershed, transportation corridor or other significant geography, in state or multi-state. Today, most regional science practitioners have no awareness of the regional council networks that represent a market for their work.
Geo-Coding Problem and Solution
Regional analysis in the United States is limited by the alphabetic FIPS codes which were assigned in the 1960’s. The base codes were assigned alphabetically for states, then alphabetically for counties and comparable geographies within states. This made it simple to lookup individual state or county data in a list, but there is no inherent relationship between the name of a political geographic unit and its location. See Figure 1.
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Figure1. FIPS and Geographic Location
County locations within states have similar relationship and county FIPS do not aggregate regionally.
Regional aggregation was accomplished with the establishment of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) with specific codes. When introduced, most MSAs matched the geography of early Metropolitan Councils of Government, as metropolitan planning was encouraged in the 1950’s.
In 2011 and perhaps for the last 20 to 30 years, MSAs expanded their geography based on workforce commuting. Labor market regions broadened as housing costs and transportation networks encouraged and supported longer commuting trips. Job centers were located in once suburban areas, but often the workforce could not live nearby and had an extended commute.
Widening patterns led to MSA overlap and designation of Combined and then Consolidated MSAs (CMSA) where MSAs appeared to have grown together. While markets may overlap in a short period of time, political jurisdictions stick to their geography and perhaps, over time have become more comfortable with the neighboring jurisdictions that they were obligated to join for a variety of Federal and State programs in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Although MSA information is widely used, because the geographic makeup has changed over time, there is little opportunity for long term analysis of change. Another issue with MSA data is that the numbers used can obscure differences within the underlying territory. Lack of a framework for Non-metro county economic analysis is also an issue. Census County Business patterns are of little value because of suppression of data for confidentiality concerns. Multi-county regions, as in the case of Public Use Samples, could allow for more data and better analysis.
There was no comparable national system to aggregate non-metropolitan counties into standard regions, although most states established some form of multi-county regional councils. Some, like Virginia, used sub-state districts for data aggregation and use by other State agencies, allowing the region number to act like a FIPS code.
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In the 1990’s, commerce, industry and even workforce commuting expanded along Interstate and Primary routes, showing connections between MSAs and a broad range of non-metropolitan counties, often in adjoining states. To understand these relationships, there was clear need for multi-regional analysis, but no data sets supported this. The author began work in 1998 to promote the development of such a system, submitting a comment to the U.S. Census Bureau February 12, 1999 relative to: Alternative Approaches to Defining Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas.
Continued work on the issue and a review of other national and international systems led to the conclusion that a global geo-code system was needed, since existing formats had tended to be based on an alphabetic approach. Given the multiplicity of regional alignments, multi-national, multi-state, a global geo-code system appeared appropriate. The purpose of this paper is to present the prototype design for the purpose of further consideration by the user communities.
The system is based on a geocode scheme set up for earth that focuses on established political boundaries as a basis for regional grouping of nations, states and localities. It is decimal system based to take advantage of the sort criteria for numbers in computers. It utilized the Sector Group and Region codes of the United Nations and ISO. The unpublished paper: “Global Region-builder Geo-Code Prototype” was presented at the Regional Studies Association, Pecs, May 2010 and NARSC Denver Conference 2010.
The basic geocodes are:
0000 Earth
0900 Arctic Ocean
1000 Europe
2000 Africa
3000 Atlantic Ocean
4000 Antarctica
5000 Americas
6000 Pacific Ocean
7000 Oceana
8000 Asia
9000 Indian Ocean
The United States is in the Northern Grouping for the Americas, which contains five country geographies. Two digit numbers were assigned using the NSEW method as follows: 1 northern grouping 5 1 10 Greenland
1 northern grouping 5 1 20 Canada
1 northern grouping 5 1 30 Saint Pierre and Miquelon
1 northern grouping 5 1 40 United States of America
1 northern grouping 5 1 50 Bermuda
1 northern grouping 5 1 60 United States Minor Outlying Islands
In the case of the U.S.A., the country has a region code of 5140 assigned as follows, Americas – 5; northern grouping – 1; NSEW country code – 40. A two digit country code is provided for because some areas will have more than ten countries within a grouping.
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Sub-Nation Geo-codes
Once a country code is established, the next task is to develop geo-codes based on the sub-national political geography. In the U.S. that began with the States. The alphabetic FIPS code do not enable geographic grouping. The U.S. Census Bureau has defined regions and divisions and this framework was used to develop NSEW geo-codes. The goal is to use as much of existing systems as possible.
Beginning in the Northeast Region with the New England Division, a NSEW path was taken to assign State code numbers, seeking to maximize the analytical benefit of having relative geographic relationships be visible in data tables, as well as be available for geographic relationships. The first document was produced November 28, 2002. States and County datasets have adequate geographic information system geocoding so that that would analytical relationships can be mapped. The ultimate goal was to establish state and substate regional data sets that can be compiled for analysis in a similar way. Subsequent pages in this paper present proposed State geo-codes with reference maps and links for each of the 51 states, collectively offering a complete Sub-State District/Regional Council system of geospatial units for analysis. Because there is a matching governmental organization for these regions, the analysis could be used and acted upon. This is rarely true for MSA geographies or any other current system in the U.S. An example of the use of regional council regions for multi-state analysis in the Mid-Atlantic is provided.
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Table 1 – State Geo-Codes with Links to State Map of Regions
Division Geo-code Region/State linked to region map page Abr. State FIPS
1. New England Division Northeast Region 1 Maine ME 23 2 New Hampshire NH 33 3 Vermont VT 50 4 Massachusetts MA 25 5 Rhode Island RI 44 6 Connecticut CT 9 2. Middle Atlantic Division Northeast Region 7 New York NY 36 8 New Jersey NJ 34 9 Pennsylvania PA 42 3. South Atlantic Division South Region 10 Delaware DE 10 11 Maryland MD 24 12 District of Columbia DC 11 13 Virginia VA 51 14 West Virginia WV 54 15 North Carolina NC 37 16 South Carolina SC 45 17 Georgia GA 13 18 Florida FL 12 4. East South Central Division South Region 19 Kentucky KY 21 20 Tennessee TN 47 21 Alabama AL 1 22 Mississippi MS 28 5. West South Central Division South Region 23 Louisiana LA 22 24 Arkansas AR 5 25 Oklahoma OK 40 26 Texas TX 48 6. East North Central Division Midwest Region 27 Michigan MI 26 28 Ohio OH 39 29 Indiana IN 18 30 Illinois IL 17 31 Wisconsin WI 55 7. West North Central Division Midwest Region 32 Minnesota MN 27 33 North Dakota ND 38 34 South Dakota SD 46 35 Iowa IA 19 36 Nebraska NE 31 37 Missouri MO 29 38 Kansas KS 20 8. Mountain Division West Region 39 Montana MT 30 40 Wyoming WY 56 41 Idaho ID 16 42 Nevada NV 32 43 Utah UT 49 44 Colorado CO 8 45 New Mexico NM 35 46 Arizona AZ 4 9. Pacific Division West Region 47 Alaska AK 2 48 Washington WA 53 49 Oregon OR 41 50 California CA 6 51 Hawaii HI 15
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State Maps with Regional Councils and Alternatives
1 - Tri-County Council for Western Maryland 2 – Suburban Maryland - Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments 3 - Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland 4 - Baltimore Metropolitan Council 5 - Upper Shore Regional Council 6 - Mid-Shore Regional Council 7 - Tri-County Council for the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland
01 - LENOWISCO PDC 02 - Cumberland Plateau PDC 03 - Mount Rogers PDC 04 - New River Valley PDC 05 - Roanoke Valley-Alleghany RC 06 - Central Shenandoah PDC 07 - Northern Shenandoah Valley RC (formerly Lord Fairfax) 08 - Northern Virginia RC 09 - Rappahannock-Rapidan RC 10 - Thomas Jefferson PDC 11 - Region 2000 LGC (Formerly Central Virginia) 12 - West Piedmont PDC 13 - Southside PDC 14 - Commonwealth PDC (Formerly Piedmont) 15 - Richmond Regional PDC 16 - George Washington RC (Formerly RADCO) 17 - Northern Neck PDC 18 - Middle Peninsula PDC 19 - Crater PDC 22 - Accomack-Northampton PDC 23 - Hampton Roads PDC (combination of 20 Peninsula and 21 Southeastern Virginia)
http://www.vapdc.org/aboutpdcs.htm
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14. West Virginia
Online map
http://www.region9wv.com/ 1 - Region I Planning & Development Council 2 - Region II Planning & Development Council 3 - Regional Intergovernmental Council 4 - Region IV Planning & Development Council 5 - Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Council 6 - Region VI Planning & Development Council 7 - Region VII Planning & Development Council 8 - Region 8 Planning & Development Council 9 - Eastern Panhandle Regional Planning and Development Council-Region 9 10 - Belomar Regional Council - Region X 11 - Brooke Hancock Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission/Region Planning & Development Council
Central PDD East PDD Northwest EDD Southeast EDD Southwest PDD West Central PDD Western PDD White River PDD
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25. Oklahoma
Map from Department of Human Services
1 Grand Gateway Economic Development Association - GGEDA
2 Eastern Oklahoma Economic Development District - EODD
3 Kiamichi Economic Development District - KEDDO
4 Southern Oklahoma Development Association - SODA
5 Central Oklahoma Economic Development District - COEDD
6 Indian Nations Council of Governments – INCOG – Tulsa
7 Northern Oklahoma Development Association - NODA
8 Association of Central Oklahoma Governments - ACOG
9 Association of South Central Oklahoma Governments – ASCOG
10 South Western Oklahoma Development Authority - SWODA
11 Oklahoma Economic Development Association - OEDA
Oklahoma Association of Regional Councils
http://www.oarcok.org/
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26. Texas
Region Name Number Abbreviation Alamo Area Council of Governments 18 AACOG Ark-Tex Council of Governments 5 ARK-TEX Brazos Valley Council of Governments 13 BVCOG Capital Area Council of Governments 12 CAPCOG Central Texas Council of Governments 23 CTCOG Coastal Bend Council of Governments 20 CBCOG Concho Valley Council of Governments 10 CVCOG Deep East Texas Council of Governments 14 DETCOG East Texas Council of Governments 6 ETCOG Golden Crescent Regional Planning Commission 17 GCRPC Heart of Texas Council of Governments 11 HOTCOG Houston-Galveston Area Council 16 H-GAC Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council 21 LRGVDC Middle Rio Grande Development Council 24 MRGDC Nortex Regional Planning Commission 3 NORTEX North Central Texas Council of Governments 4 NCTCOG Panhandle Regional Planning Commission 1 PRPC Permian Basin Regional Planning Commission 9 PBRPC Rio Grande Council of Governments 8 RGCOG South East Texas Regional Planning Commission 15 SETRPC South Plains Association of Governments 2 SPAG South Texas Development Council 19 STDC Texoma Council of Governments 22 TEXOMA West Central Texas Council of Governments 7 WCTCOG
1 Northwest Regional Development Commission 2 Headwater Regional Development Commission 3 Arrowhead Regional Development Commission 4 West Central Initiative 5 Development Commission 6 E Mid-Minnesota Regional Development Commission 6W Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission 7E East Central Regional Development Commission 7W Economic Development Region 7W 8 Southwest Regional Development Commission 9 Development Commission 10 Southeast Economic Development & Planning Region 10 - no organization 11 Metropolitan Council
Map at Minnesota Department of Transportation - Transportation Planning Partners Minnesota Metropolitan and Regional Planning Organizations http://www.dot.state.mn.us/planning/program/MPORDC.html
Minnesota Regional Development Commissions http://www.mrdo.org/
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33. North Dakota
North Dakota Department of Commerce Regional Councils
1 Tri County Regional Development Association 2 Souris Basin Planning Council 3 North Central Planning Council 4 Red River Regional Council 5 Lake Agassiz Regional Council 6 South Central Dakota Regional Council 7 Lewis and Clark Regional Development Council 8 Roosevelt-Custer Regional Council
South Dakota Department of Environment & Natural Resources - listing and map link http://denr.sd.gov/dfta/wwf/techassistance.aspx#Planning
South Dakota's nine tribal governments
http://www.sdtribalrelations.com/tribes.asp
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35. Iowa
Area 15 Regional Planning Commission Bi-State Regional Commission - BSRC Chariton Valley Planning and Development Commission East Central Intergovernmental Association - ECIA East Central Iowa Council of Governments - ECICOG Iowa Northland Regional Council of Governments - INRCOG Metropolitan Area Planning Agency - MAPA MIDAS Council of Governments North Iowa Area Council of Governments - NIACOG Northwest Iowa Planning and Development Commission - NWIPDC Region 6 Planning Commission Region XII Council of Governments Siouxland Interstate Metropolitan Planning Council - SIMPCO Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission - SEIRPC Southern Iowa Council of Governments - SICOG Southwest Iowa Planning Council - SWIPCO Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission – UERPC
Iowa Association of Regional Councils http://www.iarcog.com/FindCOG.htm
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36. Nebraska
Development Districts tab at Nebraska Community & School Websites \http://www.neded.org/files/assist/neweb.html
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37. Missouri
1 Boonslick Regional Planning Commission 2 Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission 3 East-West Gateway Coordinating Council 4 Green Hills Regional Planning Commission 5 Harry S Truman Coordinating Council 6 Kaysinger Basin Regional Planning Commission 7 Lake of the Ozarks Council of Local Governments 8 Mark Twain Regional Council of Governments 9 Meramec Regional Planning Commission 10 Mid-America Regional Council 11 Mid-Missouri Regional Planning Commission 12 Mo-Kan Regional Council 13 Northeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission 14 Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments 15 Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission 16 Pioneer Trails Regional Planning Commission 17 South Central Ozark Council of Governments 18 Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission 19 Southwest Missouri Council of Governments
Missouri Association of Councils of Governments http://www.macogonline.org/rpcs.htm
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38. Kansas
Map and History
“In 1971, an executive order laid the groundwork for the creation of additional multi- county regional planning commissions in the state by officially establishing eight planning and development regions. Since then, some of these regional organizations have disbanded.” Source: pgs. 10 - 11 “Directory of Planning Agencies U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 - IOWA, KANSAS, MISSOURI, & NEBRASKA - Last Updated: June 2008”
1 Northwest Kansas Planning and Development Commission 2a North Central Regional Planning Commission 2b Flint Hills Regional Council 3 Data region 4 Mo-Kan Regional Council 5 Mid-America Regional Council 6 Great Plains Development Inc. - Southwest Region 7 South Central Kansas Economic Development District 8 Southeast Kansas Prosperity Foundation
Note: Map modified to include Flint Hills Regional Council
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39. Montana
Workforce Regions are based on Montana Association of Counties Districts https://jobs.mt.gov/jobs/seeker/search/search.seek?actionButton=searchRegion
http://maco.cog.mt.us/Counties/MAPofCounties.htm
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40. Wyoming
Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning
http://doe.state.wy.us/lmi/0406/map.htm
Wyoming Economic Development Association – no map
http://www.wyomingeda.org/
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41. Idaho
Economic Development Districts of Idaho, Inc. http://www.growingidaho.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=members.main
1 Panhandle Area Council (PAC) 2 Clearwater Economic Development Association (CEDA) 3 Sage Community Resources, Inc. 4 Region IV Development Association, Inc. (RIVDA) 5 Southeast Idaho Council of Governments (SICOG) 6 East Central Idaho Planning and Development Agency
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42. Nevada
Only multi-county map from NV Energy - a private company http://www.nvenergy.com/economicdevelopment/regional/
Nevada districts/regions include parts of counties. Nevada Tourism - Territory map follows::
http://dola.colorado.gov/demog/region_profiles.html 1 - Northeastern Colorado Association of Local Governments 2 - North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization 3 - Denver Regional Council of Governments 4 - Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments 5 - East Central Council of Local Governments 6 - Southeast Colorado Enterprise 7 - Pueblo Area Council of Governments 8 - San Luis Valley Development Resources Group, Inc. 9 - Economic Development District of SW Colorado, Inc. 10 - League for Economic Assistance & Planning, Inc. 11 - Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado 12 - Northwest Colorado Council of Governments 13 - Upper Arkansas Area Council of Governments 14 - South Central Council of Governments
PDF brochure with state map at New Mexico Association of Regional Councils http://swnmcog.org/links/newmarc.html
Regional Planning Districts/Councils of Governments 1 Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments 2 North Central NM Economic Development District 3 Mid Region Council of Governments 4 Eastern Plains Council of Governments 5 Southwest Council of Governments 6 Southeastern NM Economic Development District 7 South Central Council of Governments
Links to regions http://cpi.nmdfa.state.nm.us/content.asp?CustComKey=202522&CategoryKey=202553&pn=Pag
e&DomName=cpi.nmdfa.state.nm.us
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46. Arizona
Central Arizona Association of Governments (CAAG) Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG) Pima Association of Governments (PAG) South Eastern Arizona Governments Organization (SEAGO) Western Arizona Council of Governments (WACOG)
Map and Links http://www.azmag.gov/archive/AZ-COGs/index.asp
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47. Alaska
Map and links to regions: http://www.dec.state.ak.us/SPAR/perp/permits_new/other_ancla.htm
1. Anchorage Economic Development Corporation 2. Bering Strait Development Council 3. Copper Valley Development Association 4. Fairbanks North Star Borough Economic Development Commission 5. Interior Rivers Resource Conservation & Development Council 6. Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District 7. Lower Kuskokwim Economic Development Council 8. Mat-Su Resource Conservation & Development, Inc. 9. Northwest Arctic Borough Economic Development Commission 10. Prince William Sound Economic Development District 11. Southeast Conference 12. Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference
Map and links to regions: http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/ded/dev/ardor/ardor.htm
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48. Washington
Map & links to regions
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/planning/Regional/
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49. Oregon
Map and links to regions
http://www.oedd.org/members.htm
Cascades West Economic Development District CCD Business Development Corporation Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council Columbia-Pacific Economic Development District Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation Mid-Columbia Economic Development District Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments South Central Oregon Economic Development District Northeast Oregon Economic Development District South Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc. Portland Regional Partners/Portland-Vancouver Economic Development District
How do geo-codes enable region-building for analysis? Examples follow for the Mid-
Atlantic Region where Regional Council geography is the Unit of Analysis.
State Codes are: 5140-08 New Jersey, 5140-09 Pennsylvania, 5140-10 Delaware, 5140-11 Maryland, 5140-12 District of Columbia, 5140-13 Virginia and 5140-14 West Virginia. Counties and, in the case of Virginia, Cities were geo-coded to existing regional council regions. Where a multi-jurisdictional region did not exist, a Data Region was created.
The alignment of data from alphabetic FIPS to aggregation by regions follows for
Charles City County located near Richmond, Virginia. The table below shows the County in its alphabetic position.
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Here the County appears in relationship to the other localities of the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission sorted using its region number 15.
This enabled creation of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Areas map which was used for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Roundtables which were first organized in 2005 and are now maintained by the Regional and Intergovernmental Planning Division of the American Planning Association.
Mid-Atlantic population growth for the period 2000-2005 is shown by region in the maps
below for Net Population Change and Percent Population Change. Boundaries are shown for the Multi-State combinations of Sub-State regions in the Mid-Atlantic.
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The perspective given by the regions, which, for the most part have regional planning and development organizations, is one that could not be seen via County or MSA geography. Compared to the MSA geography, the regional council geography is a basis for local government coordination of land use planning and regional services.
This land use analysis compares Dwelling Unit densities by region.
Loss of countryside – viewshed? Region land area less Federal and
State Lands – including Urban Areas
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Overall density in 2005 drops when Urban areas pulled out – with time series one could see better the sprawls as build out occurs.
The purpose of this paper is to: (1) present this effort to researchers and practitioners, (2) to find people who may be interested in this project for analysis of other multi-jurisdictional regions in state or multi-state geographies and to increase visibility of regional council geography and organizations in the U.S. As geo-political regions, they can also be used as regional communities to be taken into account for redistricting for State Houses and Congressional Districts. The geo-codes can be used for compilation of topics using tags for geography and subject as shown at http://delicious.com/I.see.regions.work and Regional Community Development News http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/
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01. Maine 02. New Hampshire 03. Vermont 04. Massachusetts 05. Rhode Island 6. Connecticut 07. New York 08. New Jersey 09. Pennsylvania 10. Delaware 11. Maryland 12. District of Columbia 13. Virginia 14. West Virginia 15. North Carolina 16. South Carolina 17. Georgia 18. Florida 19. Kentucky 20. Tennessee 21. Alabama 22. Mississippi 23. Louisiana 24. Arkansas 25. Oklahoma 26. Texas 27. Michigan 28. Ohio 29. Indiana 30. Illinois 31. Wisconsin 32. Minnesota 33. North Dakota 34. South Dakota 35. Iowa 36. Nebraska 37. Missouri 38. Kansas 39. Montana 40. Wyoming 41. Idaho 42. Nevada 43. Utah 44. Colorado 45. New Mexico
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46. Arizona 47. Alaska 48. Washington 49. Oregon 50. California 51. Hawaii