Physics from cities?
Yeah! I think so.
Have you ever wondered why bigger cities are richer or why there are more shopping malls in these cities and none (or almost none) in small towns? One of the answers to this is that larger cities allow for more contact between people. When people come into contact with each other, they can generate new ideas and, consequently, more innovation and wealth. There are also side effects, for example, larger cities can have more cases of infectious diseases (AIDS, COVID, H1N1, etc.) or even more violent crime. This phenomenon is known as increasing return to scale. There is also the phenomenon of economies of scale, when cities become more efficient in terms of infrastructure (e.g. gas stations, houses, urban area, etc.). Knowing the dynamics of cities is a current challenge, as this knowledge can help to make more conscious and sustainable decisions in a climate change scenario. If you want to know more. I list three articles below.
The first article reveals, among other things, that larger cities need to innovate all the time to maintain their growth rate in order to avoid stagnation or even collapse, which could affect the lives of almost 60% of the world's population.
Growth, Innovation, Scaling, and the Pace of Life in Cities
The second one there is a state of the art of how we can explain cities quantitatively. In particular, the authors present various theoretical models to explain the phenomena of “yield and economy of scale”, using concepts from mathematics and statistical physics.
Mathematical models to explain the origin of urban scaling laws
Finally, to which I had the privilege of contributing, we discuss what we call fundamental allometry, i.e. how the urban area grows with the population. We do this from a dynamic perspective, using a formalism used to investigate systems that are in a regime called “weak chaos”. The elements of the system correlate over large distances and are totally unpredictable. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? “The flapping of a butterfly's wings in Rio de Janeiro can cause disastrous hurricanes in Mississippi”. This analogy illustrates very well how difficult it is to make predictions when dealing with chaotic systems where urban dynamics seem to follow this trend.
Dynamics of Cities
The first article reveals, among other things, that larger cities need to innovate all the time to maintain their growth rate in order to avoid stagnation or even collapse, which could affect the lives of almost 60% of the world's population.
Growth, Innovation, Scaling, and the Pace of Life in Cities
The second one there is a state of the art of how we can explain cities quantitatively. In particular, the authors present various theoretical models to explain the phenomena of “yield and economy of scale”, using concepts from mathematics and statistical physics.
Mathematical models to explain the origin of urban scaling laws
Finally, to which I had the privilege of contributing, we discuss what we call fundamental allometry, i.e. how the urban area grows with the population. We do this from a dynamic perspective, using a formalism used to investigate systems that are in a regime called “weak chaos”. The elements of the system correlate over large distances and are totally unpredictable. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? “The flapping of a butterfly's wings in Rio de Janeiro can cause disastrous hurricanes in Mississippi”. This analogy illustrates very well how difficult it is to make predictions when dealing with chaotic systems where urban dynamics seem to follow this trend.
Dynamics of Cities