One-Dimensional Urban Scaling

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ribeiro, Fabiano L., Fagundes, Renan L., Rybski, Diego
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ribeiro, Fabiano L.
Fagundes, Renan L.
Rybski, Diego
author_facet Ribeiro, Fabiano L.
Fagundes, Renan L.
Rybski, Diego
contents In this paper, we apply recent findings from urban scaling theory to evaluate how it could be applied to a one-dimensional archetypal city. Our focus is on how the simplicity of a one-dimensional model can provide intuitive insights that might be obscured in more complex, multidimensional models. With this instructive model, it is possible to visualize that if the population's accessibility decreases more slowly than the increase in distance, an agglomeration effect occurs. This leads to increasing returns to scale when considering interactions between people or economies of scale in the case of amenities that serve the city. These findings highlight a key characteristic of complex systems: interacting parts that together exhibit properties that are not evident when considered individually. The results presented here are derived from both numerical simulations and theoretical analysis. Although one-dimensionality is used here as a simplification, many natural (e.g., Sułoszowa in Poland) and artificial cities (e.g., The Line in Saudi Arabia) worldwide are shaped this way.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_12495
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle One-Dimensional Urban Scaling
Ribeiro, Fabiano L.
Fagundes, Renan L.
Rybski, Diego
Physics and Society
In this paper, we apply recent findings from urban scaling theory to evaluate how it could be applied to a one-dimensional archetypal city. Our focus is on how the simplicity of a one-dimensional model can provide intuitive insights that might be obscured in more complex, multidimensional models. With this instructive model, it is possible to visualize that if the population's accessibility decreases more slowly than the increase in distance, an agglomeration effect occurs. This leads to increasing returns to scale when considering interactions between people or economies of scale in the case of amenities that serve the city. These findings highlight a key characteristic of complex systems: interacting parts that together exhibit properties that are not evident when considered individually. The results presented here are derived from both numerical simulations and theoretical analysis. Although one-dimensionality is used here as a simplification, many natural (e.g., Sułoszowa in Poland) and artificial cities (e.g., The Line in Saudi Arabia) worldwide are shaped this way.
title One-Dimensional Urban Scaling
topic Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12495