Category Archives: Complex Systems

Complexity and All Things Like That

Cities, Complexity, and Emergent Order

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Michael Batty

A short paper on key ideas that explain how patterns of urban morphology conceived in terms of networks and/or cells emerge from the bottom up and how cities restructure themselves in the same way. This tells in simple terms what this … Continue reading →

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Dynamics of Urban Movement

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Michael Batty

Many interesting approaches were presented at Strathclyde Complex Transport Networks meeting this week, ranging from slime mould networks to more conventional transportation geometries. Our paper using London Oyster Card data can be downloaded from presentations on this site or by … Continue reading →

Posted in Complex Systems, Networks, Transport | Leave a comment

Emergence, What Is It?

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Michael Batty

A complex system is often defined as ‘emergent’ when some process generates unexpected, surprising and ordered outcomes. The classic exemplar is segregation in Schelling’s model. But there is strong, weak, first order, second order emergence. Click to read Nigel Gilbert’s … Continue reading →

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How Big Can a City Get?

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Michael Batty

This question was rarely asked in the 20th century where the focus was on optimum city size. Now cities seemingly can grow forever but as Dobbs and Remes of McKinsey say, as they grow, cities become more ‘complex’. Managing this complexity … Continue reading →

Posted in Complex Systems, Urban Dynamics, Urban Growth | Comments Off on How Big Can a City Get?

Past Glimpses of Chaos, Complexity and Tipping Points

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Michael Batty

Great Talk by Paul Ormerod at Durham on Tipping Points in Financial Systems, quoting Keynes in 1937 who said: “Actually, however, we have, as a rule, only the vaguest idea of any but the most direct consequences of our acts.” Read … Continue reading →

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