An Evolutionary Theory of Urban Systems

Pumain, Dénise

doi:10.1007/978-981-10-7799-9_1

Cited by 31 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In fact, economic cycles favor cities able to develop them before the other cities. Thus, an interesting future extension could be the study of these evolution on longer periods of time by activity sectors and their comparisons in order to evaluate the effects of these cycles on the diffusion/concentration processes among cities [40]. This would bring a better comprehension of the evolution of the worldwide system of cities through their economic networks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Diversity, Strength and Centrality of Cities Using Networks of Multinational Firms

2018

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Cities play an important role in the regional, national and continental development of economies, as well as global trade and infrastructure. Most of this development revolves around the presence of multinational firms and the interconnected systems formed by their linkages. Analyzing the networks formed by these multinational firms can uncover many interesting trends and patterns providing insight into not only the development of individual cities, but also the various world regions they belong to. In this paper, we are particularly interested in networks of cities from the year 2010 and 2013 in order to understand how cities have changed in the context of networks of multinational firms. We consider diversity, strength and centrality as the key indicators to measure the importance of a city and based on these indicators analyze how cities have changed their roles in the networks of multinational firms overtime. We also introduce a cumulative ranking based on these three indicators to position cities in terms of their importance in the world. This study not only strengthens previous findings from a network analysis perspective but it also reveals the cities with considerable growth and/or significant decline over the periods studied.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Diversity, Strength and Centrality of Cities Using Networks of Multinational Firms

2018

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“…In geography, it was particularly developed by the evolutionary urban theory [53], which in practice consists of a dynamical non-equilibrium approach to urban systems as complex adaptive systems, in which interactions between components are central [32,36]. In that context, building on the definition introduced in [14,54], we propose a multi-level definition of co-evolution which is consistent with the evolutionary urban theory [11]. First of all, transformation processes of territorial components should induce evolutionary dynamics at different scales.…”

Section: Systems Of Cities and Co-evolution Regimesmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…While numerous studies focus on directly measuring indicators of urban sustainability [9], more theoretical investigations of how it relates to resilience, such as in [10], are also important contributions. This paper, understanding systems of cities as complex adaptive systems [11] which exhibit intrinsic resilience properties, contributes to this latter question. A precise and quantitative knowledge of urban systems properties and dynamical processes at large scales can become, as explained above, a powerful tool for more integrated governance and planning practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More precisely, we tackle the question of how to understand the properties and dynamics of large systems of cities, including complementary processes driving urban growth, using new sources of comprehensive urban data which are the Global Human Settlement Layer database [12] and the Geodivercity database [13]. Our contribution relies on the following points; (i) we provide a theoretical framework to interpret evolutionary urban dynamics at the scale of systems of cities, building on the evolutionary urban theory proposed in [11] and on the concept of co-evolution within urban systems defined in [14]; (ii) we study the empirical properties of large urban systems including patterns of urban growth and scaling properties, including different definitions of urban systems; and (iii) we apply and calibrate simulation models for urban dynamics on six of these large systems worldwide, comparing very different processes including spatial interactions, transportation infrastructures, economic exchanges, and innovation diffusion, yielding for each urban system plausible underlying mechanisms driving their dynamic and providing potential policy insights.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Empowering Urban Governance through Urban Science: Multi-Scale Dynamics of Urban Systems Worldwide

Raimbault

Denis²,

Pumain³

2020

Sustainability

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Cities are facing many sustainability issues in the context of the current global interdependency characterized by an economic uncertainty coupled to climate changes, which challenge their local policies aiming to better conciliate reasonable growth with livable urban environment. The urban dynamic models developed by the so-called “urban science” can provide a useful foundation for more sustainable urban policies. It implies that their proposals have been validated by correct observations of the diversity of situations in the world. However, international comparisons of the evolution of cities often produce unclear results because national territorial frameworks are not always in strict correspondence with the dynamics of urban systems. We propose to provide various compositions of systems of cities in order to better take into account the dynamic networking of cities that go beyond regional and national territorial boundaries. Different models conceived for explaining city size and urban growth distributions enable the establishing of a correspondence between urban trajectories when observed at the level of cities and systems of cities. We test the validity and representativeness of several dynamic models of complex urban systems and their variations across regions of the world, at the macroscopic scale of systems of cities. The originality of the approach resides in the way it considers spatial interaction and evolutionary path dependence as major features in the general behavior of urban entities. The models studied include diverse and complementary processes, such as economic exchanges, diffusion of innovations, and physical network flows. Complex systems dynamics is in principle unpredictable, but contextualizing it regarding demographic, income, and resource components may help in minimizing the forecasting errors. We use, among others, a new unique source correlating population and built-up footprint at world scale: the Global Human Settlement built-up areas (GHS-BU). Following the methodology and results already obtained in the European GeoDiverCity project, including USA, Europe, and BRICS countries, we complete them with this new dataset at world scale and different models. This research helps in further empirical testing of the hypotheses of the evolutionary theory of urban systems and partially revising them. We also suggest research directions towards the coupling of these models into a multi-scale model of urban growth.

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“…It admits slightly different but intelligible modalities according to the particular conditions of the historical development of these systems including rather strong path dependence effects. These historical conditions together with the common dynamics constitute the evolutionary theory of urban systems (Pumain, 2018). Because of the common urban dynamics and its rather strong path dependence, this theory authorizes a certain predictability for investigating the future of urban systems.…”

Section: Robust Grounds For Theories and Models In An Interdisciplinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Conclusion: Perspectives on Urban Theories

Pumain¹,

Raimbault

2020

Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis

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At the end of the five years of work in our GeoDiverCity program 1 , we brought together a diversity of authors from different disciplines. Each person was invited to present an important question about the theories and models of urbanization. They are representative of a variety of currents in urban research. Rather than repeat here the contents of all chapters, we propose two ways to synthesize the scientific contributions of this book. In a first part we replace them in relation to a few principles that were experimented in our program, and in a second part we situate them with respect to a broader view of international literature on these topics.

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An Evolutionary Theory of Urban Systems

Cited by 31 publications

References 24 publications

Analyzing Diversity, Strength and Centrality of Cities Using Networks of Multinational Firms

Analyzing Diversity, Strength and Centrality of Cities Using Networks of Multinational Firms

Empowering Urban Governance through Urban Science: Multi-Scale Dynamics of Urban Systems Worldwide

Conclusion: Perspectives on Urban Theories

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