ABSTRACT
Today we are on the cusp of the regional coalescence of one of America’s premier urban growth areas. Both Austin and San Antonio, Texas, have grown from relatively small cities in the last half-century to bustling million-plus population metropolitan areas in the present decade. Their rapid growth appears unabated as the region fills in the 90-mile corridor between these two nearby, yet quite different cities in the heart of Texas. Continuous inter-decadal population growth of 20 per cent to 40 per cent has been fuelled by high-tech, administrative and construction job growth (Handbook of Texas Online 2005). Both the physical and human landscapes have played curious, and critical, roles in the development of this burgeoning region. The corridor is literally bifurcated by the Balcones escarpment, a geologic divide along I-35, a major interstate highway, and has evolved into two distinctly different human landscapes (Figure 18.1).
