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Quick population growth necessitates proper planning to ensure citizen-friendly outcome

In October 2006, the population of the United States reached 300 million. Virginia Tech’s Metropolitan Institute (MI), a research center of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, helps educate the public on important issues facing growing communities.

As population grows, so does urbanization. In fact, urbanization on this scale has myriad implications that reach beyond the topic of population growth alone.

The institute, directed by Robert E. Lang and Arthur C. Nelson, studies population growth and works to help educate increasingly urbanized communities in smart growth options.

Lang, who is the founding director of the institute, is also a professor of Urban Affairs and Planning in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies (CAUS).

Robert E. Lang

His research specializations include:

• demographic and spatial analysis;
• housing and the built environment;
• metropolitan governance and regulatory issues; and
• urban topics such as downtown development and gentrification.

Lang is co-editor of the scholarly publication Opolis: An International Journal of Suburban and Metropolitan Studies. He serves as associate editor for the journal Housing Policy Debate, and is the book review editor for the Journal of the American Planning Association.

He has authored more than 100 academic and professional publications on metro- and population-related topics, and has developed new urban planning concepts such as "boomburbs" and "edgeless cities."

Arthur C. Nelson

Nelson is also a professor of Urban Affairs and Planning in CAUS's School of Public and International Affairs. Nelson's research concentrates on:

• land use planning;
• growth management;
• public facility finance;
• urban development policy; and
• the effects of metropolitan governance structures on metropolitan economic development.

Nelson is a nationally recognized authority on projecting growth and change, having served as a smart-growth expert for the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Nelson has contributed to the areas of development impact fees, farmland and forestland preservation, urban containment, the preservation of small-town character, and the effects of metropolitan governance structures on metropolitan economic development.

His research has led to the publication of 12 books and more than 150 scholarly and professional publications worldwide.

Together with Lang and Nelson's efforts, the institute works to examine national and international development patterns of the key forces shaping metropolitan growth, such as environment, technology, design, transportation, and governance.

Established in 2001, the institute’s location in Alexandria, Va. — in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area — is integral to the research conducted there. The area’s size, growth rate, and socio-economic complexity present a set of challenges and issues that parallel those of other major cities.

MI investigates the dynamics and development issues surrounding metropolitan areas worldwide, as well as the critical dimension of globalization and its implication for major metropolitan areas.

In addition, MI assists governments and nonprofit institutions in resolving policy problems through research, technical assistance, and continuing professional education.

Institute researchers also work with area communities in developing strategies and capacities to help with metropolitan development.

In order to provide assistance, the institute works with associated university and college departments and external institutions. MI researchers also collaborate with faculty members from several Virginia Tech graduate academic programs in the northern Virginia area.