Large cities are less green

Oliveira, Erneson A.; Andrade, José S.; Makse, Hernán A.

doi:10.1038/srep04235

Cited by 139 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Recent studies have questioned the definition of city boundaries and thus the non-linear scaling with population size for some urban indicators. 13,44,45 Altogether, these results however help to understand the effects of the increasing complexity of larger cities in public health. For some diseases, higher per capita efforts should be given to larger cities, whereas for other diseases, efforts should target smaller cities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

The Non-linear Health Consequences of Living in Larger Cities

2015

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Urbanization promotes economy, mobility, access, and availability of resources, but on the other hand, generates higher levels of pollution, violence, crime, and mental distress. The health consequences of the agglomeration of people living close together are not fully understood. Particularly, it remains unclear how variations in the population size across cities impact the health of the population. We analyze the deviations from linearity of the scaling of several health-related quantities, such as the incidence and mortality of diseases, external causes of death, wellbeing, and health care availability, in respect to the population size of cities in Brazil, Sweden, and the USA. We find that deaths by non-communicable diseases tend to be relatively less common in larger cities, whereas the per capita incidence of infectious diseases is relatively larger for increasing population size. Healthier lifestyle and availability of medical support are disproportionally higher in larger cities. The results are connected with the optimization of human and physical resources and with the non-linear effects of social networks in larger populations. An urban advantage in terms of health is not evident, and using rates as indicators to compare cities with different population sizes may be insufficient.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

The Non-linear Health Consequences of Living in Larger Cities

2015

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“…Moreover, due to the fact that many MSAs are constituted by aggregating small disconnected clusters, this definition framework overestimates the area of small agglomerations (see Fig. 5 (a)) by including large unoccupied areas (Oliveira et al, 2014). As a consequence, super-linear scaling exponents associated with interactions are supposed to be smaller for MSAs than natural cities.…”

Section: (A)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Allometric scaling, size distribution and pattern formation of natural cities

Li¹,

Wang²,

Zhang³

et al. 2015

Palgrave Commun

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There has been a strong interest in more cogent definitions on economies of scale to reveal general urban growth laws and to develop urban performance metrics. Unstructured data, including satellite images, will provide us with new sources to do so by defining cities as aggregates of human activities. Such a uniform definition on the basis of nighttime light clusters is more consistent and economically meaningful than administrative or official boundaries. In comparison with patterns of city systems found in traditional census data, we examined the allometric scaling, size distribution and fractal geometry of natural cities. It can be concluded from our empirical analysis on regional, country and continental scales that a super-linear scaling between lightness and area with a stable exponent across different low light threshold levels generally holds for natural cities. But Zipf 's Law does not always apply over the whole range of lightness thresholds. Furthermore, we build a model based on the simple geometric matching mechanism to reproduce the self-organized formation process of nighttime light patterns. The statistical properties including allometries, size distributions and fractal geometries generated by our model are in good agreement with empirical evidence. These findings have profound implications for understanding the effects of simple aggregation behaviour in primitive stages of city formation and the urbanization process.

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“…Identifying the boundaries of an urban area can be challenging [142,143]. This is mainly because urban areas tend to be strongly connected to their neighboring urban areas, rural hinterlands, and distant areas for their economic and hydrological functions.…”

Section: Spatial Scale or Boundary For Urban Water Footprint Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Footprint of Cities: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research

et al. 2015

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Cities are hotspots of commodity consumption, with implications for both local and systemic water resources. Water flows "virtually" into and out of cities through the extensive cross-boundary exchange of goods and services. Both virtual and real water flows are affected by water supply investments and urban planning decisions, which influence residential, commercial, and industrial development. This form of water "teleconnection" is being increasingly recognized as an important aspect of water decision-making. The role of trade and virtual water flows as an alternative to expanding a city's "real" water supply is rarely acknowledged, with an emphasis placed instead on monotonic expansion of engineering potable water supplies. We perform a literature review of water footprint studies to evaluate OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 8462 the potential and importance of taking virtual flows into account in urban planning and policy. We compare and contrast current methods to assess virtual water flows. We also identify and discuss priorities for future research in urban water footprint analysis.

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Large cities are less green

Cited by 139 publications

References 40 publications

The Non-linear Health Consequences of Living in Larger Cities

The Non-linear Health Consequences of Living in Larger Cities

Allometric scaling, size distribution and pattern formation of natural cities

Water Footprint of Cities: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research

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