A proposal for a new way to understand cities and their design not as artifacts but as systems composed of flows and networks. In The New Science of Cities, Michael Batty suggests that to understand cities we must view them not simply as places in space but as systems of networks and flows. To understand space, he argues, we must understand flows, and to understand flows, we must understand networks—the relations between objects that compose the system of the city. Drawing on the complexity sciences, social physics, urban economics, transportation theory, regional science, and urban geography, and building on his own previous work, Batty introduces theories and methods that reveal the deep structure of how cities function. Batty presents the foundations of a new science of cities, defining flows and their networks and introducing tools that can be applied to understanding different aspects of city structure. He examines the size of cities, their internal order, the transport routes that define them, and the locations that fix these networks. He introduces methods of simulation that range from simple stochastic models to bottom-up evolutionary models to aggregate land-use transportation models. Then, using largely the same tools, he presents design and decision-making models that predict interactions and flows in future cities. These networks emphasize a notion with relevance for future research and planning: that design of cities is collective action.

Michael Batty offers a comprehensive view of urban dynamics in the context of complexity theory, presenting models that demonstrate how complexity theory can embrace a myriad of processes and elements that combine into organic wholes.

How computers simulate cities and how they are also being embedded in cities, changing our behavior and the way in which cities evolve. At every stage in the history of computers and communications, it is safe to say we have been unable to predict what happens next. When computers first appeared nearly seventy-five years ago, primitive computer models were used to help understand and plan cities, but as computers became faster, smaller, more powerful, and ever more ubiquitous, cities themselves began to embrace them. As a result, the smart city emerged. In The Computable City, Michael Batty investigates the circularity of this peculiar evolution: how computers and communications changed the very nature of our city models, which, in turn, are used to simulate systems composed of those same computers. Batty first charts the origins of computers and examines how our computational urban models have developed and how they have been enriched by computer graphics. He then explores the sequence of digital revolutions and how they are converging, focusing on continual changes in new technologies, as well as the twenty-first-century surge in social media, platform economies, and the planning of the smart city. He concludes by revisiting the digital transformation as it continues to confound us, with the understanding that the city, now a high-frequency twenty-four-hour version of itself, changes our understanding of what is possible.

How we can invent—but not predict—the future of cities. We cannot predict future cities, but we can invent them. Cities are largely unpredictable because they are complex systems that are more like organisms than machines. Neither the laws of economics nor the laws of mechanics apply; cities are the product of countless individual and collective decisions that do not conform to any grand plan. They are the product of our inventions; they evolve. In Inventing Future Cities, Michael Batty explores what we need to understand about cities in order to invent their future. Batty outlines certain themes—principles—that apply to all cities. He investigates not the invention of artifacts but inventive processes. Today form is becoming ever more divorced from function; information networks now shape the traditional functions of cities as places of exchange and innovation. By the end of this century, most of the world's population will live in cities, large or small, sometimes contiguous, and always connected; in an urbanized world, it will be increasingly difficult to define a city by its physical boundaries. Batty discusses the coming great transition from a world with few cities to a world of all cities; argues that future cities will be defined as clusters in a hierarchy; describes the future “high-frequency,” real-time streaming city; considers urban sprawl and urban renewal; and maps the waves of technological change, which grow ever more intense and lead to continuous innovation—an unending process of creative destruction out of which future cities will emerge.

Collected Papers of the International scientific and practical conference “City as a Classroom” This conference is designed to consolidate the efforts of scientists and experts to ultimately comprehend existing questions with scientifically based keys, directed at uncovering the logic and tactics of implementing "HOW TO MAKE THIS CIVILIZATION A FLOURISHING ONE". In the course of six days of the conference, the following topics were covered in the format of online discussion panels: 1. Theoretical foundations for studying cities. City as a set of factors defining the status and level of personality development; 2. Symbolism, photography, expeditionary scientific activities, and other methods of exploring cities; 3. Ongoing threats in the context of the city; 4. Symbolism, mysticism and visual sociology of the European continent. Sociological, psychological, anthropological and religious perspectives on cities in other continents; 5. City as a university and training program in life; 6. Architecture as textbooks for city residents and unconscious training in the course of their lives in a city. As an outcome of the scientific discussion, the following aspects were considered and analyzed: the way the urban environment affects a person and determines his or her future; how may the methodology of researching a city as a classroom may; security in the city; the stages of personal development; statuses and factors determining personal development and photography as a tool for looking into historical enigmas. Organizing committee of “City as a Classroom” thanks all speakers and participants of the conference: Dr. Felipe Fernández-Armesto Ph.D Dr. Oleg Maltsev Prof. Dr. Peter J. M. Nas Prof. Dr. Michael Batty Charles Landry Prof. Dr. Jerome Krase Prof. Ellen Dunham-Jones Prof. Dr. Spiro N. Pollalis Eduardo Almeida Prof. Mitchell Joachim Prof. Maxim Lepskiy Prof. Vitalii Lunov Prof. Dr. Viktor Kotygorenko Carol Highsmith Prof. Liudmyla Fylypovych Dr. Ryan Bishop PhD Oleksandr Sahaidak Bryan Darr Prof. Dr. Vitalii Krivoshein Irina Lopatiuk Dwight Wilson Prof. Sarah Williams Goldhagen Avi Nardia Costantino Slobodyanyuk Dr. Yuliia Soroka Prof. Dr. Valentina Voronkova Olga Panchenko Dr. Michael Hynes Ph.D. Olga Guzhva Maryna Illiusha Olga Prokopova Dr. Olena Semenets Anna Varina Valeriya Goncharova

A guide for geographic analysts, modelers, software engineers, and GIS professionals, this book discusses agent-based modeling, dynamic feedback and simulation modeling, as well as links between models and GIS software. This collection also presents a state-of-the-art understanding of applications based on environmental, atmospheric, hydrological, urban, social, health, and economic models.

Fractal Cities is the pioneering study of the development and use of fractal geometry for understanding and planning the physical form of cities, showing how this geometry enables cities to be simulated throughcomputer graphics. The book explains how the structure of cities evolve in ways which at first sight may appear irregular, but when understood in terms of fractals reveal a complex and diverse underlying order. The book includes numerous illustrations and 16 pages full-color plates of stunning computer graphics, along with explanations of how to construct them. The authors provide an accessible and thought-provoking introduction to fractal geometry, as well as an exciting visual understanding of the formof cities. This approach, bolstered by new insights into the complexity of social systems, provides one of the best introductions to fractal geometry available for non-mathematicians and social scientists. Fractal Cities is useful as a textbook for courses on geographic information systems, urban geography, regional science, and fractal geometry. Planners and architects will find that many aspects of fractal geometry covered in this book are relevant to their own interests. Those involved in fractals and chaos, computer graphics, and systems theory will also find important methods and examples germane to their work. Michael Batty is Director of the National Center for Geographic Information and analysis in the State University of New York at Buffalo, and has worked in planning theory and urban modeling. Paul Longley is a lecturer in geography at the University of Bristol, and is involved in the development of geographic information systems in urban policy analysis. Richly illustrated, including 16 pages of full-color plates of brilliant computer graphics Provides an introduction to fractal geometry for the non-mathematician and social scientist Explains the influence of fractals on the evolution of the physical form of cities

Advanced work on GIS applications in such fields as urban planning, transportation, and economic development