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It may have the potential to literally transform the Triad area's economy. It has attracted the attention and support of major CEOs in our region, including Kelly King of BB&T and David Congdon of trucking giant Old Dominion Freight Lines. Some believe it will help attract new, well-paid jobs to the region and elevate the Triad's overall quality of life.

So what's all the fuss about?

It is a relatively new strategic vision that suggests the Piedmont Triad can become a world-class "aerotropolis."

The Piedmont Triad Partnership -- our region's leading economic development organization -- believes that branding the Triad as an aerotropolis can help our region become the pre-eminent center for global logistics on the United States East Coast.

Wow -- quite a claim.

The term aerotropolis was first coined by John Kasarda, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, in an attempt to conceptualize the emergence of a new kind of aviation-related economic development. Most of these aviation-related industry clusters are located around major airports usually situated some distance from the established city center. They have become magnets for businesses that place a high priority on the rapid and reliable delivery of a wide range of goods to retailers and consumers. Good examples include the region around Amsterdam's Schipol Airport and Incheon International Airport near Seoul, South Korea.

What is new and different about some of this development is its geographic scale and overall magnitude. Some of the fastest-growing aerotropolis regions are experiencing aviation-related growth up to 30 miles away from the airport in a wide variety of distribution-related economic activities. At the heart of each aerotropolis are compact "airport cities" that feature clusters of business hotels and conference facilities; office and retail complexes; and warehousing and storage. Good examples include Hong Kong's International Sky City and the area adjacent to the Los Angeles International Airport. Some of these airport-edge cities now rival the established city centers in size and diversity.

Most of these aerotropolis-based growth poles seem to thrive in very large, highly innovative and diverse metropolitan economies with populations larger than 4 million that also have excellent international flight connections. The aerotropolis market along the U.S. East Coast is already pretty crowded, including places like Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, Newark International and Washington Dulles.

That said, things are moving fast in the Triad. The Piedmont Triad Partnership last week announced the establishment of an impressive 25-member aerotropolis leadership board charged with developing a competitive strategy for our region and advocating for it.

However, what is less clear is whether the much smaller Triad market has the moxie to compete with these other aerotropolis juggernauts. Two logistics reports that I have recently completed hopefully shed some light on these important questions.

The "NewBridge Bank Metropolitan Transport Logistics Rankings" report concluded that the Triad was a top 40 logistics market that had significant strengths in trucking and third-party logistics services. Another report that I co-authored with fellow UNCG faculty member Andrew Brod for the Greensboro Partnership indicated that the Triad is a rapidly emerging and region-wide market for transportation and logistics-related industries, including nearly 1,000 firms and employing almost 16,000 workers (the "Triad Transport/Logistics Inventory and Cluster Mapping Project" report).

Clearly, we quite rightly have a lot to be proud of. Beyond the FedEx air cargo hub, the region is also host to the world corporate headquarters of HondaJet and Mack Trucks and a planned new FedEx ground hub. GTCC also recently announced plans to build a Center for Global Logistics near the airport to train the region's logistics workers. Further, national site consultants seem to think the Triad can make a strong case for new, distribution-related corporate investment.

Still, one nagging question persists: Does the Triad have the collective muscle and political will necessary to generate the kind of innovative infrastructure planning needed to accommodate an aerotropolis that is essentially regional in scope?

The Triad landscape is littered with less-than-successful experiments in regionalism and infrastructure planning.

One example is the recent Heart of the Triad initiative coordinated by the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation. HOT is an admirable, multi-jurisdictional regional planning effort geared towards better coordinating land uses along the Guilford/Forsyth county line. Although HOT has helped cultivate closer working relationships among Triad city planners, our region's elected officials have been less-than-energized about the process. Most of the Triad's governing authorities have adopted a stand-offish, "wait-and-see" approach.

In another example, the poor planning for Greensboro's Urban Loop, does not bode well for a future that will demand more thoughtful long-range infrastructure planning if the Triad is going to become a world-class aerotropolis. Several large housing projects have recently been approved that lie in the way of the northern segment of the planned Urban Loop right-of-way.

Fortunately, the Institute for Emerging Issues, in partnership with UNC-TV, is hosting a Triad "Community Forum on Growth and Infrastructure" Wednesday that could prove to be very helpful. The forum will focus on developing infrastructure strategies geared towards facilitating long-term growth.

Key questions that will be discussed include:

-- What are the local financing options available to pay for the Triad's infrastructure needs?

-- What can be done to facilitate cooperation across county and city lines within the region?

-- Are there opportunities to explore public-private partnerships and regional tax base-sharing arrangements to help fund projects in preparation for more aerotropolis-related growth?

A good starting point might include merging the Greensboro and Guilford County planning departments. If Piedmont Triad International Airport is ground zero for the Triad's fledgling aerotropolis, then a well-coordinated and sustainable growth strategy focused on the airport area is crucial to its long-term success. Merging the two planning departments might help facilitate better coordination and more effective planning.

Louisville and Indianapolis, which also host major air cargo hubs (operated by UPS and FedEx, respectively), have adopted similar approaches, although both communities ultimately consolidated all city and county government services with great success.

Better infrastructure planning is essential, since the FedEx mid-Atlantic air-cargo hub at PTIA will officially open in the fall and we need to act quickly. In particular, we desperately need region-wide growth and infrastructure policies capable of nurturing a long-term competitive advantage for the Triad. The IEI Forum may be an important first step in that direction.

Both logistics reports are available on the author's Web site at www.uncg.edu/~kgdebbag/index_files/ComOut.htm

Keith G. Debbage is a professor of urban geography at UNCG. Contact him at 334-3911 or kgdebbag@uncg.edu or see his Web site at www.uncg.edu/~kgdebbag.