Table Of ContentHANDBOOK ON CITIES AND COMPLEXITY
PPOORRTTUUGGAALLII ((HHaannddbbooookk oonn CCiittiieess aanndd CCoommpplleexxiittyy)) CCOOLLOOUURR..iinndddd 11 2266//0088//22002211 1111::2288
RESEARCH HANDBOOKS IN URBAN STUDIES
In this urban century the need for innovative and rigorous research on the challenges
and opportunities facing our cities has never been so pressing. This timely series brings
together critical and thought-provoking contributions on key topics and issues in
urban research from a range of social science perspectives. Comprising specially
commissioned chapters from leading academics these comprehensive Research
Handbooks feature cutting-edge research and are written with a global readership in
mind. Equally useful as reference tools or high-level introductions to specific topics,
issues, methods and debates, these Research Handbooks will be an essential resource for
academic researchers and postgraduate students.
Titles in the series include:
Handbook of Urban Segregation
Edited by Sako Musterd
Handbook of Megacities and Megacity-regions
Edited by Danielle Labbé and André Sorensen
Handbook on City and Regional Leadership
Edited by Markku Sotarauta and Andrew Beer
Handbook of Cities and Networks
Edited by Zachary P. Neal and Céline Rozenblat
Handbook on Cities and Complexity
Edited by Juval Portugali
PPOORRTTUUGGAALLII ((HHaannddbbooookk oonn CCiittiieess aanndd CCoommpplleexxiittyy)) CCOOLLOOUURR..iinndddd 22 2266//0088//22002211 1111::2288
Handbook on Cities and
Complexity
Edited by
Juval Portugali
Professor of Human Geography, Department of Geography and the
Human Environment, Tel Aviv University, Israel
RESEARCH HANDBOOKS IN URBAN STUDIES
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
PPOORRTTUUGGAALLII ((HHaannddbbooookk oonn CCiittiieess aanndd CCoommpplleexxiittyy)) CCOOLLOOUURR..iinndddd 33 2266//0088//22002211 1111::2288
© The Editor and Contributors Severally 2021
Cover image: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, 1559, oil on
oak wood, 118 × 164 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Source: Wikimedia
Commons – public domain.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or
otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
The Lypiatts
15 Lansdown Road
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 2JA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
William Pratt House
9 Dewey Court
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021943595
This book is available electronically in the
Geography, Planning and Tourism subject collection
http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781789900125
ISBN 978 1 78990 011 8 (cased)
ISBN 978 1 78990 012 5 (eBook)
Typeset by Cheshire Typesetting Ltd, Cuddington, Cheshire
2
0
PPOORRTTUUGGAALLII ((HHaannddbbooookk oonn CCiittiieess aanndd CCoommpplleexxiittyy)) CCOOLLOOUURR..iinndddd 44 2266//0088//22002211 1111::2288
Contents
List of contributors vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction to the Handbook on Cities and Complexity 1
Juval Portugali
PART I FOUNDATIONS
1 Cities, complexity and beyond 13
Juval Portugali
2 The emergence of complexity theories: an outline 28
Hermann Haken
3 City systems and complexity 48
Michael Batty
4 Major transitions in the story of urban complexity 64
Stephen Marshall and Nick Green
PART II COMPLEXITY THEORIES OF CITIES
5 Complexity: the evolution and planning of towns and cities 86
Peter M. Allen
6 Synergetic cities 108
Juval Portugali and Hermann Haken
7 Co-evolution as the secret of urban complexity 136
Denise Pumain
8 Fractal geometry for analyzing and modeling urban patterns and planning
sustainable cities 154
Pierre Frankhauser
9 Scaling, fractals and the spatial complexity of cities 176
Yanguang Chen
10 Cybernetic cities: designing and controlling adaptive and robust urban
systems 195
Carlos Gershenson, Paolo Santi and Carlo Ratti
v
PPOORRTTUUGGAALLII ((HHaannddbbooookk oonn CCiittiieess aanndd CCoommpplleexxiittyy)) CCOOLLOOUURR..iinndddd 55 2266//0088//22002211 1111::2288
vi Handbook on cities and complexity
PART III COMPLEXITY, LANGUAGE AND CITIES
11 New concepts in complexity theory arising from studies in the field of
architecture: an overview of the four books of the nature of order with
emphasis on the scientific problems which are raised 210
Christopher Alexander
12 The dialectic as driver of complexity in urban and social systems 233
Alan Penn
PART IV MODELLING COMPLEX CITIES
13 Modelling car traffic in cities 260
Vincent Verbavatz and Marc Barthelemy
14 Studying the dynamics of urban traffic flows using percolation: a new
methodology for real-time urban and transportation planning 274
Nimrod Serok, Orr Levy, Shlomo Havlin and Efrat Blumenfeld Lieberthal
15 The simple complex phenomenon of urban parking 295
Itzhak Benenson and Nir Fulman
PART V COMPLEXITY, PLANNING AND DESIGN
16 Complexity and uncertainty: implications for urban planning 319
Stefano Moroni and Daniele Chiffi
17 Tailoring nudges to self-organising behavioural patterns in public space 331
Koen Bandsma, Ward Rauws and Gert de Roo
18 Evolutionary games in cities and urban planning 349
Sara Encarnação, Fernando P. Santos, Francisco C. Santos,
Margarida Pereira, Jorge M. Pacheco and Juval Portugali
19 Homo faber, Homo ludens and the city: a SIRNIA view on urban planning
and design 370
Juval Portugali
Epilogue: cities and complexity in the time of COVID-19 391
Hermann Haken, Juval Portugali, Michael Batty, Stephen Marshall,
Nick Green, Peter M. Allen, Pierre Frankhauser, Carlos Gershenson,
Alan Penn, Vincent Verbavatz, Marc Barthelemy, Daniele Chiffi,
Stefano Moroni, Koen Bandsma, Ward Rauws and Gert de Roo
Index 415
PPOORRTTUUGGAALLII ((HHaannddbbooookk oonn CCiittiieess aanndd CCoommpplleexxiittyy)) CCOOLLOOUURR..iinndddd 66 2266//0088//22002211 1111::2288
Contributors
Christopher Alexander, Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of
California, Berkeley, USA.
Peter M. Allen, Professor Emeritus, School of Management, Cranfield University, UK.
Koen Bandsma, PhD student, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, the
Netherlands.
Marc Barthelemy, Institut de Physique Théorique, Université Paris Saclay, CEA,
CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette and Centre d’Analyse et de Mathématique Sociales (CNRS/
EHESS), Paris, France.
Michael Batty, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College
London, UK.
Itzhak Benenson, Department of Geography and the Human Environment, Tel Aviv
University, Israel.
Efrat Blumenfeld Lieberthal, The David Azrieli School of Architecture, Yolanda and
David Katz Faculty of the Art, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Yanguang Chen, Department of Geography, College of Urban and Environmental
Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China.
Daniele Chiffi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
Sara Encarnação, Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences – CICS.NOVA – FCSH/
UNL, Lisbon and ATP-group, Porto Salvo, Portugal.
Pierre Frankhauser, Thema Research Institute, University of Bourgogn – Franche-
Comté and LVMT (University Gustave Eiffel and Ecole des Ponts-ParisTech), France.
Nir Fulman, PhD student, Department of Geography and the Human Environment,
Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Carlos Gershenson, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en
Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.
Nick Green, Chartered Town Planner and Senior Tutor in the School of the
Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, Manchester,
UK.
Hermann Haken, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Center of Synergetics, Stuttgart
University, Germany.
Shlomo Havlin, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University,
Israel.
vii
PPOORRTTUUGGAALLII ((HHaannddbbooookk oonn CCiittiieess aanndd CCoommpplleexxiittyy)) CCOOLLOOUURR..iinndddd 77 2266//0088//22002211 1111::2288
viii Handbook on cities and complexity
Orr Levy, PhD, Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
Stephen Marshall, Professor of Urban Morphology and Urban Design, Bartlett School
of Planning, University College London, London, UK.
Stefano Moroni, Professor of Urbanism, Politenico di Milano, Italy.
Jorge M. Pacheco, Centro de Biologia Molecular e Ambiental and Departamento de
Matemática e Aplicações, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal and ATP-group,
Porto Salvo, Portugal.
Alan Penn, Professor of Architectural and Urban Computing at The Bartlett School
of Architecture, University College London and Chief Scientific Adviser, Ministry of
Housing, Communities and Local Government, UK.
Margarida Pereira, Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences – CICS.NOVA –
FCSH/UNL, Lisbon, Portugal.
Juval Portugali, Department of Geography and the Human Environment, Tel Aviv
University, Israel.
Denise Pumain, Professor of Geography at University Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne,
France.
Carlo Ratti, SENSEable City Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
USA.
Ward Rauws, Assistant Professor of Spatial Planning, Department of Planning, Faculty
of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Gert de Roo, Professor of Spatial Planning, Department of Planning, Faculty of Spatial
Sciences, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Paolo Santi, SENSEable City Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
USA and Istituto di Informatica e Telematica, CNR, Italy.
Fernando P. Santos, Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands,
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton,
USA and ATP-group, Porto Salvo, Portugal.
Francisco C. Santos, INESC-ID and Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de
Lisboa, IST-Taguspark, Porto Salvo and ATP-group, Porto Salvo, Portugal.
Nimrod Serok, The David Azrieli School of Architecture, Yolanda and David Katz
Faculty of the Art, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Vincent Verbavatz, Institut de Physique Théorique, Université Paris Saclay, CEA,
CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
PPOORRTTUUGGAALLII ((HHaannddbbooookk oonn CCiittiieess aanndd CCoommpplleexxiittyy)) CCOOLLOOUURR..iinndddd 88 2266//0088//22002211 1111::2288
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the authors of this Handbook – friends and colleagues who agreed
to participate in this project and to contribute their insightful views on the multiple
facets of Cities and Complexity. Special thanks to © ‘Christopher Alexander/Center
for Environmental Structure Archive’ for giving me the permission to re-publish
Christopher Alexander’s paper from 2003 (as Chapter 11 in this volume); specifically to
Mrs Maggie Moore Alexander and to my good friend Dr Artemis Anninou who made
the link to Mrs Moore Alexander. Many thanks to Senior Supervising Editor Alexandra
O’Connell from Edward Elgar Publishing, who first invited me to start this project and
helped along the way, and to the Elgar team for their excellent work in the production
of this book.
ix
PPOORRTTUUGGAALLII ((HHaannddbbooookk oonn CCiittiieess aanndd CCoommpplleexxiittyy)) CCOOLLOOUURR..iinndddd 99 2266//0088//22002211 1111::2288
