Urban Systems Research Research Articles

An empirical comparative analysis of functional and perceived neighbourhood boundaries across Geneva, Switzerland

The neighbourhood unit is used extensively across numerous disciplines to empirically measure various urban characteristics and phenomena. Spatially heterogeneous system variables—e.g., environmental, sociodemographic, infrastructural etc.—create distinct local-scale subunits, or neighbourhoods, within cities and other larger urban systems. Reflecting unique contextual features at the local scale, the way in which such boundaries are drawn can influence measured outcomes like health, wellbeing, and sustainability, which in turn can have an impact on decision-making.With Geneva as our case study, we compare two different conceptualisations of the local neighbourhood: (1) functional neighbourhoods established using a data-driven approach that emphasises the built environment and neighbourhood functions; and (2) perceived neighbourhoods whose boundaries are drawn by Geneva residents through a spatially explicit web survey. In this comparative analysis, we employ geospatial analysis methods and develop indicators to characterise the relationship between functional and perceived neighbourhood boundaries for a group of Geneva residents. Results suggest that there is little consensus between the functional and the perceived neighbourhood boundaries although both are expressed at the same spatial scale. While there has been increasing evidence showing the importance of local-scale approaches in urban systems research, the conceptualisation and operationalisation of locality remains arbitrary and ambiguous. Here, the choice of the local neighbourhood unit when studying urban systems is also discussed.

The complexity of the urban system: Profiles based on current literature and gaps with Sustainable Development Goals

AbstractThe realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs) is not only the independent progress of each goal but, more importantly, to combat undesirable interactions, conflicts, and impacts, which can exactly reflect in system analysis. Cities, as the main body of development and policy implementation, the system perspectives of which provide an integrated way across the full extension. Narrowing the gaps between urban system research and SDGs helps ensure their realization with the lowest cost and highest efficiency. Therefore, this article first collects literature from the Web of Science Core Collection, eliminating out‐of‐scope articles and integrating citing and cited references. Then, this article profiles the final 59 urban system studies on three levels (coupling evaluation, internal element interactions, and dynamic system evolution). Finally, the gaps between the research and SDGs are discussed. Based on the results, the four aspects should be addressed to narrow the gaps: (1) Give full play to the advantages of system methods on the urban scale. (2) Give full play to the bridge role of research among various urban stakeholders. (3) Give full play to experience sharing toward sustainable urban development to avoid futile attempts. (4) Give full play to the language media role of data in policy goals, scientific research, urban needs, and other aspects.

The taming of chaos: Optimal cities and the state of the art in urban systems research

What can urban big data research tell us about cities? While studying cities as complex systems offers a new perspective on urban dynamics, we should dig deeper into the epistemological claims made by these studies and ask what it means to distance the urban researcher from the city. Big data research has the tendency to flatten our perspective: it shows us technology users and their interactions with digital systems but does so often at the expense of the informal and irregular aspects of city life. It also presents us with the city as optimisable system, offering up the chance to engineer it for particular forms of efficiency or productivity. Both optimisation itself, and the process of ordering of the city for optimisation, confer political and economic power and produce a hierarchy of interests. This commentary advocates that researchers connect systems research to questions of structure and power. To do this requires a critical approach to what is missing, what is implied by the choices about which data to collect and how to make them available, and an understanding of the ontologies that shape both the data sets and the urban spaces they describe.

Cities in interaction: Analysing the Dutch system of cities with computational methods

Cities never function in isolation but as nodes in overarching systems characterised by flows of goods, people, and information. To fully understand the evolution of cities, a relational approach is needed, which investigates cities in relation to other cities and urban regions. While a significant part of urban system research has focused on aspects such as the concentration of populations and economic activities, the understanding of the actual networks connecting cities and their impact is still limited. However, the required data is notoriously difficult to obtain. This dissertation contributes to knowledge on the relationship between cities in the Netherlands by exploiting – in novel ways – three data sources: web pages mentioning cities, local historical newspapers, and administrative registers. After providing an overview of the systems of cities literature, the toponym co-occurrences method is explored. This method aims at identifying patterns of relations between cities in a systematic way by looking at the co-mentions of cities in text documents (here in web pages). Using text as data appeared as a great direction for studying urban systems, and elements from this first exploration are used in the next section of the thesis where the past dynamics of the Dutch urban system is reconstructed using information flows retrieved from digitised historical newspapers. Finally in a last empirical part, the potential of information from individual-level registers about professional and residential trajectories for measuring relations between places at multiple spatial scales is investigated. This measure is then used to reveal the nested hierarchy of functional regions in the Netherlands.

Cities in interaction

Cities never function in isolation but as nodes in overarching systems characterised by flows of goods, people, and information. To fully understand the evolution of cities, a relational approach is needed, which investigates cities in relation to other cities and urban regions. While a significant part of urban system research has focused on aspects such as the concentration of populations and economic activities, the understanding of the actual networks connecting cities and their impact is still limited. However, the required data is notoriously difficult to obtain. This dissertation contributes to knowledge on the relationship between cities in the Netherlands by exploiting – in novel ways – three data sources: web pages mentioning cities, local historical newspapers, and administrative registers. After providing an overview of the systems of cities literature, the toponym co-occurrences method is explored. This method aims at identifying patterns of relations between cities in a systematic way by looking at the co-mentions of cities in text documents (here in web pages). Using text as data appeared as a great direction for studying urban systems, and elements from this first exploration are used in the next section of the thesis where the past dynamics of the Dutch urban system is reconstructed using information flows retrieved from digitised historical newspapers. Finally in a last empirical part, the potential of information from individual-level registers about professional and residential trajectories for measuring relations between places at multiple spatial scales is investigated. This measure is then used to reveal the nested hierarchy of functional regions in the Netherlands.

Cities in interaction

Cities never function in isolation but as nodes in overarching systems characterised by flows of goods, people, and information. To fully understand the evolution of cities, a relational approach is needed, which investigates cities in relation to other cities and urban regions. While a significant part of urban system research has focused on aspects such as the concentration of populations and economic activities, the understanding of the actual networks connecting cities and their impact is still limited. However, the required data is notoriously difficult to obtain. This dissertation contributes to knowledge on the relationship between cities in the Netherlands by exploiting – in novel ways – three data sources: web pages mentioning cities, local historical newspapers, and administrative registers. After providing an overview of the systems of cities literature, the toponym co-occurrences method is explored. This method aims at identifying patterns of relations between cities in a systematic way by looking at the co-mentions of cities in text documents (here in web pages). Using text as data appeared as a great direction for studying urban systems, and elements from this first exploration are used in the next section of the thesis where the past dynamics of the Dutch urban system is reconstructed using information flows retrieved from digitised historical newspapers. Finally in a last empirical part, the potential of information from individual-level registers about professional and residential trajectories for measuring relations between places at multiple spatial scales is investigated. This measure is then used to reveal the nested hierarchy of functional regions in the Netherlands.

Urban Systems: Mapping Interdependencies and Outcomes to Support Systems Thinking

AbstractThis paper argues that urban systems issues are design problems on a grand scale and that various disciplines aiming to address them can have only a partial view of the problem. It is necessary to draw boundaries around the detailed analyses of specific issues, but a way to map the wider system, to contextualize and more deeply understand how they are interrelated, is still lacking. Four complexity obstacles related to reasoning about complex systems are in our way, and to our knowledge no existing approach navigates them effectively. We propose a tool called the Abstraction Hierarchy as a way to do just this, in order to frame complex issues on a large scale, in a way accessible to all disciplines. To demonstrate the power of this systems model, the Abstraction Hierarchy is applied to an urban area. Through its application we demonstrate its capability to navigate all four obstacles and investigate previously unexplored space in urban systems research.

階層的都市システム研究における日本の都市のグローバルな位置づけ:―都市地理学・世界都市論・都市ランキングの系譜から―

階層的都市システム研究における日本の都市のグローバルな位置づけ:―都市地理学・世界都市論・都市ランキングの系譜から―

The Evolution of the Systems of Cities Literature Since 1995: Schools of Thought and their Interaction

The study of relations between cities has long been a major focus in urban research. For decades, this field has grown integrating contributions from many disciplines. But today, the field appears rather fragmented. This study analyses the body of literature that has developed over the last 23 years to identify schools of thought on interurban relationships and to see to what extent these interact with each other. It does so by innovatively employing bibliometric analysis to the study of systems of cities, which allows a bottom-up identification of five schools of thought: one predominantly focusing on the regional or intra-metropolitan scale and centred on concepts of polycentricity; one addressing the global scale with a focus on world city networks; one employing simulation and complexity theories to understand behaviour of agents building the urban system bottom-up; one rooted in (new) economic geography and focusing on growth and decline in the urban system; and, one seeking regularities with respect to city size distributions. The conceptual, methodological and empirical aspects of these different schools are discussed by means of a ‘semantic map’ derived from the vocabulary of titles and abstracts of papers. The coupling of the semantic map with the citation networks of these schools of thought confirms the increasing fragmentation of the field over the last decades. However, in the most recent years, the different schools of thought start to interact slightly more. The desirability and feasibility of a move from multidisciplinarity to interdisciplinarity in urban systems research needs further exploration.

Spatial Pattern and Evolution of Urban System Based on Gravity Model and Whole Network Analysis in the Huaihe River Basin of China

The spatial pattern and evolution of urban system have been hot research issues in the field of urban research. In this paper, the network analysis method based on the gravity model and the related measurements were used to reveal the properties of the spatial pattern and evolution of the urban system in the HRB (Huaihe River Basin) of China. The findings of this study are as follows: During the period from 2006 to 2014, the economic contact between the HRB cities has been strengthened, but the differences between cities have been expanding. In general, the HRB cities have not yet formed a close network structure, and a trend of economic integration has not been found. This paper expresses the spatial pattern and evolution of urban system in an intuitive way and helps to explain the evolution mechanism of urban system. The method was confirmed by empirical research. Because of the operational and visual expression, this method has broad application prospects in the urban system research.

Origin, spatial pattern, and evolution of urban system: Testing a hypothesis of “urban tree”

The origin, spatial pattern, and evolution of urban system have been hot research issues in the field of urban system. In this study, the theory of “urban tree (UT)” was proposed to address these issues. The spatial pattern of urban system can be expressed by the phrase UT and the growth of the UT reflects the origin, spatial pattern, and evolution of urban system. Analysis of the UT growth can reveal the evolutionary mechanisms of the urban system. We present an UT resistance model to determine spatial extension in the evolutionary processes of urban system. The Thiessen polygon method and spatial re-mapping were used to construct the UT. Data collected in 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 from cities in the Huai River Basin were used to construct the UT model to analyze the origin, spatial pattern, and evolution of urban system in this region. Xuzhou City was the UT “tree root” and the UT growth the followed four paths. Growth of cities on the nodes of these paths promoted the evolution of urban system. The UT theory expresses the spatial pattern and evolution of urban system in an intuitive way and helps to explain the origin and evolution mechanisms of urban system. Empirical research supported the UT theory. Because of the operational and visual expression, this theory has broad application prospects in the urban system research.

Towards Resilient and Sustainable Cities: A Conceptual Framework

Cities are complex and dynamic Meta systems in which technological components and social interact. A variety of hazards threatens cities, so planning for resilience in the face of urban disaster is important. We are just beginning to realize the scope and magnitude of the challenges inherent in making our cities resilient to threats from natural hazards and terrorism. To meet these challenges, a national resilient cities initiative, aimed at the vision of the resilient city as the goal that cover all type of hazard mitigation. To succeed, this initiative will require changes in national disaster policy, funding for urban systems research, support for advanced education program and active collaboration among the city professions.One of the natural hazards which cities should be resilience to, is drought that is resulted from climate change. The city of Mashhad which has been faced with water crisis in recent years is selected as a case study. By analyzing the status of water resources and its changes during the periods of growth and development of the city, its function towards the resilience and sustainability is measured. Also necessary strategies for improving the water resourcescondition in order to becoming resilient and sustainable city are proposed.

Streetscape skeleton measurement and classification

The scale and proportions of “streetscape skeletons,” the three-dimensional spaces of streets defined by the massing and arrangement of surrounding buildings, are theoretically relevant to the way human users perceive and behave. Nonetheless, the dominant ways of measuring and identifying streets emphasize vehicular service and functionality. Moreover, existing built environment-based classifications have focused on recommended forms rather than characterizing the full range of existing conditions that must be accounted for in policy and understanding of human–environment interactions. To work toward a better streetscape measurement and classification scheme, this study investigated how large numbers of streetscapes could be efficiently measured to evaluate design patterns across and between multiple cities. Using a novel GIS-based method, 12 streetscape skeleton variables were measured on more than 120,000 block-length streetscapes in three northeastern U.S. cities: Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Baltimore, MD. Logistic regression models based on these variables were unsuccessful at distinguishing between cities, confirming that the variables were similarly applicable to each city and that the cities had comparable streetscape skeleton identities. Cluster analyses were then used to identify four streetscape skeleton classes that were also consistent between cities: upright, compact, porous, and open. These classes were distinct from the widely used highway functional class system, reinforcing the distinction between streetscape design and roadway functionality and thus the importance of accounting for them separately. The streetscape skeleton classes provide a digestible yet objective system for identifying prevalent streetscape designs that are appropriate for urban policy design, advocacy, and urban systems research.

The structure, evolution and sustainability of urban socio-economic system

Analyzing the structure and functioning of the urban system revealed ways to optimize its structure by adjusting the relationships among compartments, thereby demonstrating how ecological network analysis can be used in urban system research. Based on the account of the extended exergy utilization in the sector of urban socio-economic system, which is considered as the composition of extraction (Ex), conversion (Co), agriculture (Ag), industry (In), transportation (Tr), tertiary (Te) and households (Do) sectors, an urban ecological network model is constructed to gain insights into the sustainable urban development process. Taking Beijing city as a model case, the network accounting and related ecological evaluation of a practical urban economy are carried out in this study in the light of flux, utility and structure analysis. The results showed Beijing had made some progress in moving manufacturing economy into service economy during the 10years. The increased output of the domestic sector (labor services) relieves the energy demand being placed on agricultural, industrial, transportation and tertiary sectors. The transportation sector was becoming a controlling factor to fluctuate the other sectors and the cross-regional trade is beginning to overshadow the crucial role of local manufacturing, which is due partly to the restructuring of the Beijing's commodity markets since the 1990s. The major implication of our work is that the exergy-based network analysis can be refined to become an integrative tool for evaluation, policy-making and regulation for ecosystem management concerning structure and efficiency at urban levels.

Ecological network determination of sectoral linkages, utility relations and structural characteristics on urban ecological economic system

Analyzing the structure and functioning of the urban system revealed ways to optimize its structure by adjusting the relationships among compartments, thereby demonstrating how ecological network analysis can be used in urban system research. Based on the account of the extended exergy utilization in the sector of urban socio-economic system, which is considered as the composition of extraction (Ex), conversion (Co), agriculture (Ag), industry (In), transportation (Tr), tertiary (Te) and households (Do) sectors, an urban ecological network model is constructed to gain insights into the economic processes oriented to sustainable urban development. Taking Beijing city as the case, the network accounting and related ecological evaluation of a practical urban economy are carried out in this study in the light of flux, efficiency, utility and structure analysis. The results showed that a large quantity of energy and resources have to be consumed to maintain the structure and function of a city. The thermodynamic efficiencies of individual sector in Beijing remain at a low level. The social system in Beijing is a highly competitive network, and there are 8 competitive relations and only two mutualistic ones. The Domestic and Agricultural sector are the major controlling factors of the system. Moreover, the assessment results of Beijing are compared with the other three socio-economic systems, Norway, UK and Italy, and the ecological network function and structure comparisons are correspondingly illuminated and discussed. The conclusions indicate that the exergy-based network analysis can be refined to become an integrative tool for evaluation, policy-making and regulation for urban socio-economic system management concerning structure and efficiency at urban levels.

Form Follows Function? Linking Morphological and Functional Polycentricity

Empirical research establishing the costs and benefits that can be associated with polycentric urban systems is often called for but rather thin on the ground. In part, this is due to the persistence of what appear to be two analytically distinct approaches in understanding and measuring polycentricity: a morphological approach centring on nodal features and a functional approach focused on the relations between centres. Informed by the oft-overlooked but rich heritage of urban systems research, this paper presents a general theoretical framework that links both approaches and discusses the way both can be measured and compared in a coherent manner. Using the Netherlands as a test case, it is demonstrated that most regions tend to be more morphologically polycentric than functionally polycentric. The difference is largely explained by the size, external connectivity and degree of self-sufficiency of a region’s principal centre.

Ecological network analysis of an urban energy metabolic system: Model development, and a case study of four Chinese cities

Urban metabolism research faces difficulties defining ecological trophic levels and analyzing relationships among the metabolic system's energy components. Here, we propose a new way to perform such research. By integrating throughflow analysis with ecological network utility analysis, we used network flows to analyze the metabolic system's network structure and the ecological relationships within the system. We developed an ecological network model for the system, and used four Chinese cities as examples of how this approach provides insights into the flows within the system at both high and low levels of detail. Using the weight distribution in the network flow matrix, we determined the structure of the urban energy metabolic system and the trophic levels; using the sign distribution in the network utility matrix, we determined the relationships between each pair of the system's compartments and their degrees of mutualism. The model uses compartments based on 17 sectors (energy exploitation; coal-fired power; heat supply; washed coal; coking; oil refinery; gas generation; coal products; agricultural; industrial; construction; communication, storage, and postal service; wholesale, retail, accommodation, and catering; household; other consuming; recovery; and energy stocks). Analyzing the structure and functioning of the urban energy metabolic system revealed ways to optimize its structure by adjusting the relationships among compartments, thereby demonstrating how ecological network analysis can be used in future urban system research.

Ecological network and emergy analysis of urban metabolic systems: Model development, and a case study of four Chinese cities

Analysis of the structure and function of urban metabolic systems is an important goal of urban research. We used network pathways and network utility analysis to analyze the basic network structure of the urban metabolic system and the complex ecological relationships within the system, providing a new way to perform such research. Using four Chinese cities as examples, we developed an ecological network model of the urban metabolic system. By using network pathway analysis, we studied the changing relationships between metabolic length and the number of metabolic pathways, and between metabolic length and reachability. Based on the distribution of the number of metabolic pathways, we describe the basic structure and intercompartment relationships of the system. By using the sign distribution in the network utility matrix, we determined the ecological relationships and degree of mutualism between the compartments of the system. The basic components of the system consisted of the internal environment, the external environment, and the agricultural, industrial, and domestic sectors. With increasing metabolic length, the ecological relationships among the components of the system became more diverse, and the numbers of metabolic paths and their reachability improved. Although the basic network structure of the four cities was identical, the mutualism index differed. Beijing's mutualism index was superior to that of Shanghai, and much higher than those of Tianjin and Chongqing. By analyzing the structure and function of the urban metabolic system, we provide suggestions for optimizing the structure and adjusting the relationships, and propose methods for the application of ecological network analysis in future urban system research.

Urban Hazard Mitigation: Creating Resilient Cities

Cities are complex and interdependent systems, extremely vulnerable to threats from both natural hazards and terrorism. This paper proposes a comprehensive strategy of urban hazard mitigation aimed at the creation of resilient cities, able to withstand both types of threats. The paper reviews hazard mitigation practice, defines a resilient city, considers the relationship between resilience and terrorism, and discusses why resilience is important and how to apply its principles to physical and social elements of cities. Contending that current hazard mitigation policy, practice, and knowledge fail to deal with the unique aspects of cities under stress, the paper recommends a major resilient cities initiative, including expanded urban systems research, education and training, and increased collaboration among professional groups involved in city building and hazard mitigation.

Zentrale Orte: Zur Karriere und Krise eines Konzepts in Geographie und Raumplanung

This paper deals with the history of central place theory, as conceived by W. Christaller in 1993, in geography and spatial planning (regional policy and regional planning). On the basis of this retrospective the current importance of central place theory in research and of the central place con cept (derived from central place theory) in spatial planning will be discussed. Aided by a five-step arrangement of development phases, the history of central place theory in geography is reconstructed. Amongst others, the belated adoption and the differences of empirical and theoretical research between German-speaking countries and North America will be dealt with. At present central place theory does not play an important role in pure research and is unlikely to do so in the future. Those areas that it was origi nally devised for now have at their disposal more effective theoretical concepts which are also closer to reality. This holds good for research on retailing as well as for the geo graphy of services and for urban systems research. This dis cussion is followed by an analogous examination of the rise of the central place concept in (West) German spatial planning. The central place concept was introduced into the