Does the Appalachian Regional Commission Really Represent a Region?

Abstract

DOES THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL COMMISSION REALLY REPRESENT A REGION?* Ann DeWitt Watts INTRODUCTION. The Appalachian Regional Development Act (ARDA) of 1965 (Public Law 89-4) established the Appalachian Regional Commission ( ARC ) as an innovative federal-state mechanism to provide social and economic development assistance to 360 counties in 11 states. (1) The Act also provided for the inclusion of counties in New York should that state be interested in the program. The New York counties were to be contiguous to the existing region and of comparable socio-economic characteristics. (2) Thirteen counties were added in this manner. The 1967 Amendments to the bill (PL 90-11) added 18 counties in Mississippi, two in Alabama and one each in Tennessee and New York. A provision was added restricting further expansion of the region without Congressional approval, and it has not expanded since that time. (3) The federally designated Appalachian Region now consists of 397 counties. These include the entire state of West Virginia and parts of 12 other states ( Fig. 1 ) . NATURE OF THE INQUIRY. This study seeks to answer the following questions concerning the nature of this area and the ways in which it is, or is not, a region: 1 ) is Appalachia a homogeneous region, and if so, what are its common characteristics? 2)how do the Appalachian counties compare, as to physical and socio-economic characteristics, with the remaining counties in the 13 state study area? 3)how strongly do the two major sets of variables used to define the region—socio-economic characteristics and physical characteristics —correlate with each other? and * The author would like to thank Thomas Watts and David Sciocchetti for their assistance in the computer runs for this paper and Carol Chapman for her cartographic skills. Dr. Watts is Chairman of the Urban and Regional Planning Program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061. 20 Southeastern Geographer APPALACHIA AS DEFINED IN PUBLIC LAW 90-17 APPALACHIAN REGION (1967 COUNTY BOUNDARY STATE BOUNDARY 200300 MILES ALBERS EQUAL-AREA PROJECTION Figure 1. Appalachian Region as Defined in Public Law 90-17. 4) is the regional boundary more clearly delineated in some places than in others? DEFINITION OF A REGION. Geographic regions may be classed as formal or nodal. Formal regions are homogeneous, or uniform, in one Vol. XVIII, No. 1 21 or more variables. Each region, a contiguous grouping of units, has characteristics which make it different from surrounding areas or regions. Formal regions may be defined by their physical, social, economic, or cultural characteristics or by some combination of these characteristics depending upon the purpose or purposes of the definition . When regionalization is based upon a single characteristic the method of analysis and the delineation of the boundaries are reasonably straightforward. When several characteristics must be combined in some fashion, however, the problem of boundary definition increases exponentially. (4) The greater the number of variables used to define a region the greater becomes the problem of border definition because the borders determined for each of the several variables seldom coincide. When each variable is plotted independently a "spaghetti bowl" of overlapping borders often emerges and only the core or heart of the region remains circumscribed within all the borders . (5) Such regions are often too small, or are otherwise inadequate, for use in planning economic development or service delivery. Thus a logical and consistent means of defining boundaries is needed so that territorial units can be rationally fitted into or deleted from the region being delimited. The second type of region, the nodal or functional region, is defined by dynamic flows or patterns of movement from a hinterland to a node or from low to high order nodes. (G) The parts of a functional region are usually heterogeneous in character but their functions are interrelated. (7) Thus a functional service area might be defined as a central place and its hinterland. The "flows" might be economic (cargo, commuter trips), social (students, hospital patients), political (government expenditures), or informational (phone calls, newspapers ) . (8) PURPOSE OF THE REGION. The President's Appalachian Regional Commission (PARC) was established in 1963 by John F. Kennedy at the request of eight governors who were concerned with both...

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