Miami Valley

The Miami Valley, broadly, refers to the land area surrounding the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio, USA, and also includes the Little Miami, Mad, and Stillwater Rivers as well. Geographically, it includes Dayton, Springfield, Middletown, Hamilton, and other communities.

Most commonly, however, it refers to the economic and cultural-social region centered primarily on Dayton and the Greater Dayton area, including TV and radio markets. Middletown and Hamilton both fall under the economic and cultural-social influence of Cincinnati and thus, do not commonly use the term in this sense. Institutions and enterprises in the Dayton area, such as Miami Valley Career Technology Center, Miami Valley Hospital, Miami Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America , Miami Valley Storytellers as well as Upper Valley Medical Center (Troy)  illustrate local usage.

Local television stations WDTN, ThinkTV (WPTD and WPTO), WHIO-TV and WRGT include the following counties and cities in the cultural Miami Valley:
 * Montgomery County (Dayton)
 * Greene County (Xenia)
 * Preble County (Eaton)
 * Clark County (Springfield)
 * Miami County (Troy)
 * Darke County (Greenville)
 * Champaign County (Urbana)
 * Shelby County (Sidney)
 * Logan County (Bellefontaine)
 * Butler and Warren counties (Middletown)
 * Wayne County, Indiana (Richmond, Indiana)

Additionally, WHIO includes the following locations in its news and weather coverage:
 * Mercer County (Celina)
 * Auglaize County (Wapakoneta)
 * Clinton County (Wilmington)
 * Union County, Indiana (Liberty, Indiana)
 * Randolph County, Indiana (Winchester, Indiana)

Major highways

 * Interstate 75 - Runs north to south more or less along the valley and through downtown Dayton.
 * Interstate 70 - Traverses the valley from east to west
 * Interstate 71 - Runs north to south along the eastern half of the Miami valley.
 * Interstate 675 - Bypasses Dayton from I-75 south of the city to I-70 east of it
 * U.S. Route 35 - Runs east to west through the Dayton metro area
 * U.S. Route 68 - Runs north to south through fertile farmlands in the eastern Miami valley
 * Ohio State Route 129 - Connects Hamilton to I-75
 * Ohio State Route 49 - Forms a by-pass west of Dayton and continues north into Darke County.

Dayton-Cincinnati CSA Merger
According to an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer, as Greater Cincinnati grows northward through Butler County, it is expected to eventually merge with Greater Dayton by 2013, thereby virtually erasing any distinguishable boundary between the two current Combined Statistical Areas (CSA). As a result, the US Census Bureau will begin reporting the Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan areas as one by that time. The new Cincinnati-Dayton metroplex will be comparable in nature to that of Baltimore-Washington's and place it within the top 20 most populous metros in the US with a population of nearly 3.1 million.

Colleges and universities

 * University of Dayton
 * Wright State University
 * Clark State Community College
 * Wilmington College
 * Cedarville University
 * Miami University
 * Sinclair Community College
 * Urbana University
 * Wittenberg University
 * Antioch University