Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]

Skip to main content
Log in

Urban chaos and perplexing dynamics of urbanization

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A city with fractal structure used to be thought of as a kind of spatial chaotic attractor. Several chaotic attractors indeed can be found by simulating urbanization dynamics through numerical iterations. However, the results lend little support to the suggestion that real cities are chaotic systems. The rural-urban population interaction model does not display chaotic behavior in normal state, but chaos will happen only if the parameter values of the model deviate from the reality. Accordingly, whether or not complex urban systems are chaotic is posed as a pending question. Varied simulation experiments based on the urbanization dynamics imply that the complex patterns of cities occur on the edge of chaos rather than in chaotic state. This result presents an angle of view for us to understand Holland’s question, i.e., why the interactions that form a city are typically stable in the real world.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  • Albeverio, S., Andrey, D., Giordano, P., Vancheri, A.: The Dynamics of Complex Urban System. Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg (2008)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bak, P.: How Nature Works. Springer, New York (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  • Batty, M.: Cities and Complexity. MIT Press, London (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  • Batty, M., Karmeshu: A strategy for generating and testing models of migration and urban growth. Region. Stud. 17(4), 223–236 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Batty, M., Longley, P.A.: Fractal Cities. Academic Press, London (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Y.G.: Fractal Urban Systems: Scaling, Symmetry and Spatial Complexity. Scientific Press, Beijing (2008) (In Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Y.G., Zhou, Y.X.: The rank-size rule and fractal hierarchies of cities: mathematical models and empirical analyses. Env. Plan. B, Plan. Des. 30(6), 799–818 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Y.G., Zhou, Y.X.: Reinterpreting central place networks using ideas from fractals and self-organized criticality. Env. Plan. B, Plan. Des. 33(3), 345–364 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Y.G., Zhou, Y.X.: Scaling laws and indications of self-organized criticality in urban systems. Chaos Soliton Fractals 35(1), 85–98 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dendrinos, D.S., El Naschie, M.S.: Nonlinear dynamics in urban and transportation analysis. Chaos Soliton Fractals 4, 497–617 (1994) (Special issue)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dendrinos, D.S., Mullally, H.: Urban Evolution: Studies in the Mathematical Ecology of Cities. Oxford University Press, New York (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dendrinos, D.S., Sonis, M.: Chaos and Socio-Spatial Dynamics. Springer, New York (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  • Holland, J.: Hidden Order. Addison–Wesley, Reading (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kauffman, S.: The Origin of Order. Oxford University Press, New York (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiel, L.D., Elliott, E. (eds.): Chaos Theory in the Social Science. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nijkamp, P.: . Theory of chaos: relevance for analyzing spatial process. In: Fisher, M.M., Nijkamp, P., Papageorgiou, Y. (eds.) Spatial Choices and Processes, pp. 49–79. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nijkamp, P., Reggiani, A.: Chaos theory and spatial dynamics. J. Transp. Econ. Policy 25(1), 81–96 (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nijkamp, P., Reggiani, A.: The Economics of Complex Spatial Systems. Elsevier, Amsterdam (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, D., Stacey, R.: Chaos, Management and Economics. Institute of Economic Affairs, London (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Portugali, J.: Self-Organization and the City. Springer, Berlin (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  • Puu, T.: Attractors, Bifurcations and Chaos: Nonlinear Phenomena in Economics, 2nd edn. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Leeuw, S.E., McGlade, J.: Structural change and bifurcation in urban evolution: a non-linear dynamical perspective. In: Van der Leeuw, S.E., McGlade, J. (eds.) Time, Process and Structured Transformation in Archaeology, pp. 331–372. Routledge, London (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zanette, D., Manrubia, S.: Role of intermittency in urban development: a model of large-scale city formation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 79(3), 523–526 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, X., Jarrett, D.F.: Chaos in a dynamic model of traffic flows in an origin-destination network. Chaos 8(2), 503–513 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yanguang Chen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chen, Y. Urban chaos and perplexing dynamics of urbanization. Lett Spat Resour Sci 2, 85 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12076-009-0026-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12076-009-0026-8

Keywords

JEL Classification

Navigation