Conurbations

Conurbations are multi-metro networks ranked by the sum of composite scores across their members. Three layers feed the list. Named megaregions surface the canonical multi-city groupings the workbook can't form on its own (Pearl River Delta, Jing-Jin-Ji, Randstad, Flemish Diamond). Editorial overrides give each Global Capital, Continental Metro, and Major Metro that's structurally a conurbation its true civic name (Tri-State Area, Bay Area, Sudogwon, Île-de-France, Twin Cities, DFW Metroplex, Wasatch Front, Chukyo, Jabodetabek, Chang-Zhu-Tan, Research Triangle, Merseyside, and 40 others). Auto-clustered networks fill the long tail: connected components formed at a 75 km link distance, recursively split when a cluster exceeds its size-dependent average-pairwise ceiling so transitive chains can't masquerade as whole-country belts. Tiers mirror the individual metro scale exactly: Global (cluster score ≥100), Continental (50-100), Major (20-50), Regional (<20). The top of the list is Pearl River Delta at 188.5, Tri-State Area at 181.1, Greater London at 180.1, Jing-Jin-Ji at 144.3, Île-de-France at 142.6. The middle tier captures the canonical cross-border twins (Detroit-Windsor, San Diego-Tijuana, Vienna-Bratislava, Kinshasa-Brazzaville, Nice-Monaco) and tight regional networks (Florence-Pisa-Siena-Lucca, Hartford-New Haven-Springfield-New London, Prague-Pardubice-Liberec, Edinburgh-Central Scotland, the Caribbean Sint Maarten cluster, the upstate New York belt).