Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
At the Texas A&M University Transportation Center for Mobility’s monthly meeting Jan. 26, urban planning professors from Texas A&M’s College of Architecture presented research that shows a great deal of careful planning will be needed to deal with booming population growth in the area of Texas known as the Texas Urban Triangle over the next 20 years.
Michael Neuman and Elise Bright, professors of urban planning at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, and Aggie graduate students conducted the study, which led to a 140-page report, ”Texas Urban Triangle: Framework for Future Growth.” They researched key strategic factors shaping the future growth of the mega-region, including current and future needs for water, energy, housing, education, transportation, and other infrastructure.
“The Texas Urban Triangle is the urban mega-region bound by Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, and it has become one of the most relevant areas in the world,” said Neuman at the meeting at Texas A&M’s Gilchrist Building.
“With 17 million people living in this region, it’s the largest populated area of Texas,” he said, adding that by 2030, the Texas Urban Triangle could swell to 25 million residents.
“This comprehensive study shows us that without serious planning, the Texas Urban Triangle will have numerous and severe shortages,” said Bright. “By 2030, the region will need 50,000 new teachers, 1,800 additional schools and 8,000 new police officers. The area’s projected growth will have a huge impact on water, land and air quality.”
Almost all of the issues they studied have transportation implications.
“Areas within the Texas Urban Triangle consist of fertile and productive farmland. Do we really want to build roads over it?” Neuman asked.
He also presented facts about dropping water levels in Texas aquifers. Houston’s surface has subsided more than 12 feet, due to water being pumped from the aquifers underneath it; the water level in its aquifer has been drawn down four hundred feet over the last century.
It’s worse under the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, he said, where some aquifers have seen a drop of more than 800 feet.
These losses, said Neuman, have multiple implications for transportation and other infrastructure investment decisions. Because of the region’s size and conflicting needs, Neuman and Bright acknowledge that coordinating planning efforts among the numerous entities within it presents a unique challenge.
“A comprehensive approach is required to tackle these issues,” Bright says. “We need to build political support for future planning. What will the Texas Urban Triangle look like in 20 years if we don’t do anything to guide it?”
The report can be accessed at http://sustainableurbanism.tamu.edu, under the “projects” link; a video of their presentation is available at http://utcm.tamu.edu/colloquium/last_colloq.stm.
