Introduction to Urban Systems and Applications

Abstract

AbstractAs new information technologies and large amounts of data from a wide range of sources become available to government agencies and the public, urban researchers have started to investigate how these data can be used to enhance the planning and management of various urban systems. As a result, new methods for collecting and analyzing complex space–time data about urban systems have been developed to address various urban issues. These urban systems include transportation systems, energy systems, and health systems. In recent years, considerable new work has been conducted to examine how new information technologies and data can enhance our understanding of and ability to address urban issues. The eight chapters in this section present various applications of urban informatics to specific urban systems or phenomena, including human mobility and travel, urban freight systems, urban resilience and disaster response, urban crime, urban governance, the use of remote sensing for environmental monitoring, health and wellbeing, and urban energy systems. All of them emphasize how new, big, or open data are useful for helping us to better understand and manage specific urban systems. They also highlight significant challenges in such applications of urban informatics, which would be particularly helpful to urban researchers and planners.