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Cities: The Visible Expression of Co-evolving Complexity

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Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age

Abstract

This paper elaborates the view that cities as complex systems are typified by co-evolutionary behaviour and organization. As a consequence, cities change, adapt and maintain rich, diverse and varied strategies, sub-optimal behaviours, imperfect information, mistaken inferences and creativity. These aspects of cities are exemplified by reference to a set of simulation models developed by Allen and co-workers since the 1970s in a variety of domains (land-use and transportation), scales (a single city’s dynamics and regional urban dynamics) and locations (Europe, the US, West Bengal and Nepal).

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Correspondence to Peter M. Allen .

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Allen, P.M. (2012). Cities: The Visible Expression of Co-evolving Complexity. In: Portugali, J., Meyer, H., Stolk, E., Tan, E. (eds) Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

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