USA. Analysis of dynamics of urbanization problems based on a simulation computer model of a system to prevent urban decline - covers theoretical aspects, urban planning, housing, improvement of the environment, the role of the urban area public administration in implementing community development and revival policies, financial aspectsmotivation of entrepreneurship, etc. Diagrams, and references.

This monograph presents urban simulation methods that help in better understanding urban dynamics. Over historical times, cities have progressively absorbed a larger part of human population and will concentrate three quarters of humankind before the end of the century. This “urban transition” that has totally transformed the way we inhabit the planet is globally understood in its socio-economic rationales but is less frequently questioned as a spatio-temporal process. However, the cities, because they are intrinsically linked in a game of competition for resources and development, self organize in “systems of cities” where their future becomes more and more interdependent. The high frequency and intensity of interactions between cities explain that urban systems all over the world exhibit large similarities in their hierarchical and functional structure and rather regular dynamics. They are complex systems whose emergence, structure and further evolution are widely governed by the multiple kinds of interaction that link the various actors and institutions investing in cities their efforts, capital, knowledge and intelligence. Simulation models that reconstruct this dynamics may help in better understanding it and exploring future plausible evolutions of urban systems. This would provide better insight about how societies can manage the ecological transition at local, regional and global scales. The author has developed a series of instruments that greatly improve the techniques of validation for such models of social sciences that can be submitted to many applications in a variety of geographical situations. Examples are given for several BRICS countries, Europe and United States. The target audience primarily comprises research experts in the field of urban dynamics, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

This book adopts a fresh approach to the issue of rural-urban dynamics through a study of the changing nature of livelihoods, mobility and markets in ten study sites across four countries of Africa and Asia.

Southeast Asia contains four urban conglomerates of the sort that this study characterizes as Mega-Urban Regions â " Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh. These locations are examined in this book, along with Taipei and Shanghai. Because the administrative boundaries of the cities at the core of these zones do not include the entire urban area, the significance of the broader urban community has largely escaped scholarly attention. The authors base their analysis on actual agglomeration size rather than administrative boundaries, and draw on unpublished census data to study the dynamics of these massive urban zones, considering area and population size as well as social and demographic patterns of change in core, inner and outer zones. They conclude that these mega-urban regions continue to increase their share of national populations, and zones immediately beyond the official metropolitan boundaries are where the most dramatic changes are occurring.

Cities and city regions are growing throughout the world and this trend is forecast to continue well into the 21st century. The authors of The Rise of the City see the next 100 years as being the ÒUrban CenturyÓ. In this book they examine urban growth

The role of railways in urban development is the subject of this book. The central aim is to inquire into how especially the development of high-speed rail and light rail links will affect European cities. The analyses are carried out with special attention given to the broader institutional environment of the railway system, including the shift toward privatised railway companies and internationalisation.