The US Southeast is the eastern portion of the Southern United States, but the Census Bureau does not provide a standard definition of a "Southeast" region of the United States, and organizations that need to subdivide the US are free to define a "Southeast" region to fit their needs. http://images.google.com/images?q=southeastern+united+states&btnG=Search+Images&hl=en&sa=2 However, Georgia is almost always included, Texas is almost never included, and inclusion of other states varies.

Atlanta is the central metropolis of the Southeast http://www.metroatlantachamber.com/macoc/business/img/alookatatlanta.pdf http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0033-0124.1989.00162.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=prog , and the Southeast roughly corresponds to an area with Atlanta centrally located, with Hartsfield as the region's airline hub. Much of Virginia is associated with the Washington, Richmond or Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News metropolitan areas. A portion of the latter extends into North Carolina.

The region boasts a number of prominent universities, with several large research universities of longstanding significance (such as James Madison University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, University of Maryland, Georgetown University,UNC Chapel Hill, Florida International University, University of South Florida, Florida State University, University of Florida, Furman University, University of Georgia, Emory University, Vanderbilt University, University of Tennessee, Duke University, Wake Forest University, Medical College of Georgia, University of Miami, Medical University of South Carolina, North Carolina State University, Clemson University, University of South Carolina and Georgia Institute of Technology) exerting an influence beyond the region.

Research Triangle Park, in the Raleigh-Durham urban area of North Carolina has emerged (over a nearly 50-year existence) as a major hub of technology, governmental and biotechnological research and development, as has the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond. The Cummings Research Park in the Huntsville, Alabama area is another of the largest research complexes in the nation, and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida is the largest laboratory in the world devoted to the study of magnetism. The University of South Carolina is currently constructing a research campus in downtown Columbia, and the University is the nation?s only National Science Foundation-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells.^[1]

Examples of definitions of the Southeast

Largest Cities

These are the ten largest cities in the Southeastern region of the United States by population according to United States Census Bureau on 2006-07-01:^[2].

Largest metropolitan areas

Beyond Megalopolis by Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, an attempt to update Jean Gottmann's work with current trends, defines two "megapolitan areas" contained within the Southeast, out of a total of ten such areas in the United States:

• "Piedmont" centered on Atlanta and extending from North Carolina to Alabama
• "Peninsula" covering South Florida and Central Florida

Two others tie some areas on the margins of the Southeast to urban centers in other regions:

• "Gulf Coast" extending as far east as the western tip of Florida
• "Northeast" including much of eastern Virginia

References

• Britannica Southeast U.S. video on Youtube

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