The Complex Science of Cities and How They Grow

Explore the fascinating connections between complexity science and urban development in this 55-minute lecture by Professor Elsa Arcaute. Discover how fractal patterns in nature relate to city formation and growth, and learn about the application of complexity science in predicting voting patterns based on infrastructure. Delve into the concept of "more is different" and how interacting parts like people give rise to unexpected properties in urban systems. Examine intriguing parallels between cities and natural systems, including similarities between leaf structures and city layouts, urban footprints resembling brain organization, and the potential existence of collective urban memory influencing socio-economic trends. Question whether these resemblances stem from our inherent fractal nature and gain insights into urban scaling laws, hierarchies, city boundary definitions, and the analysis of urban processes using percolation theory and networks.