Dependency and Urban Growth: A Critical Review and Reformulation of the Concepts of Primacy and Rank-Size

1981 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1389-1400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Ettlinger
Keyword(s):  
Urban Growth ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
City Size ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
National Boundaries

Concepts of city-size distributions are critically reviewed and reformulated. City-size distributions are conceptualized in terms of a continuum that is not necessarily unidirectional. Processes of urban growth and decline are explained with reference to interurban linkages and dominance-dependence relationships within and across national boundaries.

Growth and Change in the Analysis of Rank—Size Distributions: Empirical Findings

1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
E J Malecki
Keyword(s):  
Urban Growth ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Urban System ◽  
City Size ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Differential Growth ◽  
Threshold Size ◽  
Growth And Change ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Urban Places

This paper analyzes the interrelationships of city size and growth in the American Midwest from 1940 to 1970 in an effort to synthesize the study of urban growth rates and of city-size distributions. Changes in the rank–size distribution are related to the differential growth of different-size urban places; some relationship in changes over time is evident, but there is little correspondence in static analyses. The urban system analyzed by various threshold sizes examines the sensitivity of rank–size coefficients and urban growth-rate stability to the threshold. The threshold size appears to be far more important than previous research has considered, and noticeably influences the analysis of urban growth rates and rank–size distributions.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 5954
Author(s):  
Juste Raimbault ◽  
Eric Denis ◽  
Denise Pumain
Keyword(s):  
Urban Growth ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Dynamic Models ◽  
Network Flows ◽  
City Size ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
The World ◽  
Urban Science

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.

scholarly journals Influence of Urban-Growth Pattern on Air Quality in China: A Study of 338 Cities

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 1805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanchuan Mou ◽  
Yan Song ◽  
Qing Xu ◽  
Qingsong He ◽  
Ang Hu
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Growth Pattern ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
City Size ◽  
Socioeconomic Indicators ◽  
Economic Zones ◽  
Coastal China

Air pollution in China is a serious problem and an inevitable threat to human health. This study evaluated the relationship between air quality and urban growth pattern in China by conducting empirical research involving 338 prefecture-level and above cities. Spatial regression techniques considering spatial autocorrelation were applied to correct the calculation bias. To obtain local and accurate results, a conception of eight economic zones was adopted to delineate cities into different groups and to estimate regression separately. An additional six urban form and socioeconomic indicators served as controlling variables. Significant and positive relationships between the aggregated urban growth pattern index and air pollution were observed in Northeast China, northern coastal China, and Northwest China, indicating that a high degree of urban aggregation is associated with poor air quality. However, a negative parameter was obtained in southern coastal China, showing an opposite association on urban aggregation and air quality. Nonsignificant connections among the other four zones were found. The findings also highlighted that land use mix, population density, and city size exerted varied and significant influence on air quality across eight economic zones. Overall, this study indicated that understanding the quantitative relationships between urban forms and air quality can provide policymakers with alternative ways to improve air quality in rapidly developing China.

A Dynamic Generalization of Zipf's Rank-Size Rule

1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 1449-1467 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Roehner ◽  
K E Wiese
Keyword(s):  
Stochastic Model ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Simple Form ◽  
Deterministic Model ◽  
City Size ◽  
Zipf’S Law ◽  
Zipf's Law ◽  
City Size Distribution ◽  
Zero Growth

A dynamic deterministic model of urban growth is proposed, which in its most simple form yields Zipf's law for city-size distribution, and in its general form may account for distributions that deviate strongly from Zipf's law. The qualitative consequences of the model are examined, and a corresponding stochastic model is introduced, which permits, in particular, the study of zero-growth situations.

scholarly journals Departures from Gibrat's Law, Discontinuities and City Size Distributions

Urban Studies ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 1997-2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahjond S. Garmestani ◽  
Craig R. Allen ◽  
Colin M. Gallagher ◽  
John D. Mittelstaedt
Keyword(s):  
City Size ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Gibrat’S Law ◽  
Gibrat's Law

A Growth Process for Zipf's and Yule's City-Size Laws

1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
M F Dacey
Keyword(s):  
Growth Model ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Probabilistic Model ◽  
Growth Process ◽  
City Size ◽  
Birth Process ◽  
Urban Growth Model ◽  
The Law ◽  
Zipf Law

The Zipf rank–size law and the Yule probability law are both used to describe city populations. Though these laws are usually treated as identical, they describe city populations in different ways. These differences are first resolved, and the Zipf law is expressed in terms of the Yule law. Then urban growth is formulated by a probabilistic model as a pure birth process that generates city populations asymptotically obeying the Yule probability law. This model has similarities with the derivation by Yule of the law named after him and with the urban-growth model described in a well-known paper by Simon.

Urbanisation, central planning and Tolley's model of urban growth: a critical review

Geoforum ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Ronnås ◽  
Örjan Sjöberg
Keyword(s):  
Urban Growth ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Central Planning

scholarly journals THE SPATIAL MEANING OF PARETO'S SCALING EXPONENT OF CITY-SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS

Fractals ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 1450001 ◽  
Author(s):  
YANGUANG CHEN
Keyword(s):  
Fractal Dimension ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Size ◽  
Fractional Dimension ◽  
Scaling Exponent ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Pareto Exponent ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Map Scale ◽  
Dimension Ratio

The scaling exponent of a hierarchy of cities used to be regarded as a fractional dimension. The Pareto exponent was treated as the fractal dimension of size distribution of cities, while the Zipf exponent was considered to be the reciprocal of the fractal dimension. However, this viewpoint is not exact. In this paper, I will present a new interpretation of the scaling exponent of rank-size distributions. The ideas from fractal measure relation and the principle of dimension consistency are employed to explore the essence of Pareto's and Zipf's scaling exponents. The Pareto exponent proved to be a ratio of the fractal dimension of a network of cities to the average dimension of city population. Accordingly, the Zipf exponent is the reciprocal of this dimension ratio. On a digital map, the Pareto exponent can be defined by the scaling relation between a map scale and the corresponding number of cities based on this scale. The cities of the United States of America in 1900, 1940, 1960, and 1980 and Indian cities in 1981, 1991, and 2001 are utilized to illustrate the geographical spatial meaning of Pareto's exponent. The results suggest that the Pareto exponent of city-size distributions is a dimension ratio rather than a fractal dimension itself. This conclusion is revealing for scientists to understand Zipf's law on the rank-size pattern and the fractal structure of hierarchies of cities.

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