Simulating Employment Location

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Michael Batty

As part of our ARCADIA project, we are taking employment forecasts for different sectors from Cambridge Econometrics input-output model, and then simulating location using two-stage regression. This in turn provides the inputs to our LUTI models. There is detail of the project on our SIMULACRA blog but the working paper can be accessed here.

Posted in Simulation, SpatialInteraction, Urban (LUTI) Models | Leave a comment

The City Size Debate Goes on Forever

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Michael Batty

Brian Berry has followed up his Cities as Systems within Systems of Cities paper published in 1964 in the Papers & Proceedings of the Regional Science Association with a great review of the city size debate in  Current Research in Cities. Essential reading for those  involved in scaling. Readers please note that Brian graduated from UCL in 1955.

Posted in Allometry, Complex Systems, Entropy, Scaling | Leave a comment

Extreme MegaCities

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Michael Batty

James Canton in a prescient article in Significance argues that cities will diversify as they get larger. Like Dobbs & Remes in their McKinsey report, he argues there is effectively no limit on their growth. At least not in terms of concrete & steel, more likely in governance. These relate to my own piece on what happens as we head toward the singularity.

Posted in Evolution, Scaling, Smart Cities, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Quest for the Qualitative

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Michael Batty

Notwithstanding Rutherford’s quote “Qualitative is nothing but poor quantitative”, my old article (1982, but rediscovered! on the web) may have contemporary resonance if not relevance. How to think about discontinuities in social systems in terms of catastrophe theory: riots and rapid U-turns in regeneration policies. Click here

Posted in Chaos, Emergence, Policy Analysis, Tipping Points, Urban Dynamics | Leave a comment

Visualising the Flow of Debt

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Michael Batty

Topical visualisations of flows: so simple, so effective. How we can visualise the flow of debt in the west between countries by the BBC  and even better by the New York Times which introduces scenarios about future flows, reflecting contagion, phase transition etc. Implications for modelling flows of traffic, migration and much else. Click here.

Posted in Design, Flows, Fluxes, Networks, SpatialInteraction | Leave a comment