tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78112541108755081272024-03-14T08:23:51.349+00:00urban complexitycities as complex systemsRamirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-54774968585099713492010-03-16T21:52:00.010+00:002010-04-03T11:02:47.009+01:00Can cities really be sustainable?<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Introduction</span></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> There is a twofold reality concerning cities. On the one hand, they are the locus of many of our most well-rehearsed national problems (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Amin, Massey & Thrift, 2000</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), but on the other, they can be considered among the brightest stars in the constellation of human achievement (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Rees & Wackernagel, 1996</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). Therefore, they are sinks of challenges, but also sources of creativity and hope (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Amin, Massey & Thrift, 2000</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The nature and variety of challenges which cities have faced during their existence have differed widely. At the very beginning, the first human agglomerations or <a href="http://paisajetransversal.blogspot.com/2010/02/kowloon-walled-city.html">‘walled cities’</a> were shelters against invasion, starvation and wild elements. Then the Greco-Roman cities can be considered the origins of politics, democracy and citizenship but also were centres of slavery and injustice. Much later, the Victorian industrial metropolis was locus of poverty, grime and disease as well as generators of moral revolutions (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Amin, 2006</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). Nowadays cities are recognized as being arenas for social inequalities and major causes of natural resource degradation. Moreover, since the first years of the last century, these problems have been increasing due to the progressive urban population growth. In this sense, according to the last World Urbanization Prospect report, <a href="http://esa.un.org/unup/p2k0data.asp">within 40 years almost the 70% of the total population will live in cities</a> (</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">World Urbanization Prospects, 2007</span></span></b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). As mentioned by Amin (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2006</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), the human condition has become the urban condition, and hence, the future of mankind is now (more than ever) closely linked to the destiny of our cities.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a name='more'></a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 32px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For decades architects and planners have suggested a wide diversity of models of ‘good city’ in order to tackle the principal urban problems. The ‘Garden City’ (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Howard, 1898</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) was the first city model of the long list (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Figure 1 a</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). According to Howard’s metaphor of the “town-country magnet”, the garden city was the balance required to solve the city-countryside conflict. Then Le Corbusier (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1971</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) formulated first, and much later, implemented his idea of the ‘Contemporary City of 3 million inhabitants’ in the Indian city of <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Chandigarh&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Chandigarh,+India&ei=9_ifS-WvNov00gTdiaSbDA&ved=0CBAQ8gEwAA&t=h&z=11">Chandigarh</a>. A rational city designed according to human physiology and numerical geometry (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Figure 1 c</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). The 1930s was a decade were the utopian models of good city flourished. First was the Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Broadacre City’ (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lynch, 1981; Figure 1 b</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), and then, a model proposed by Mumford (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1938</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), both authors claimed for a more organic city, namely a city which is in an effective symbiosis with the environment. The next model is called the ‘Compact City’ and it has been around from the early 1990s until our days. It is based on the reductionist idea of conceiving the city in terms of shape and density. In this regard, it has been argued that compactness can reduce energy consumption, pollution and preserve habitats and valued landscapes (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">CEC, 1990</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 32px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1gDhK3YLUzvXfwi0CHKuLiTLy63a6DA9XwhLe-a0e7BqOaWLjg3drAfHV_vhrr1CwlGFes1KM24VuNAikvz5Drjx-pG1U654yW3Z36YxtkD_G1EluyVtVuBEr45rcLz4NidMdYrNFA54/s1600-h/models2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1gDhK3YLUzvXfwi0CHKuLiTLy63a6DA9XwhLe-a0e7BqOaWLjg3drAfHV_vhrr1CwlGFes1KM24VuNAikvz5Drjx-pG1U654yW3Z36YxtkD_G1EluyVtVuBEr45rcLz4NidMdYrNFA54/s320/models2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:formulas><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype><v:shape alt="models.tif" id="_x0031__x0020_Imagen" o:spid="_x0000_i1027" style="height: 115.5pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 425.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><v:imagedata o:title="models" src="file:///C:\Users\Ramiro\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.png"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></v:imagedata></v:shape></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Figure 1</span></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> Models of good city: a) Howards’ Garden City (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Howards, 1898</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">); b) Wright’s Broadacre City (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lynch, 1981</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">); and c) Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City of 3 million of inhabitants (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Le Corbusier, 1971</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> It has stated that compactness could be one of the dimensions of the new model of good city (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Terradas, 2001</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), the sustainable city. However, can cities really be sustainable? In order to answer this question is essential to define first the word </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sustainable</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. On the one hand, we could accept the well-known <a href="http://www.ourcommonfuture.org/">Brundtland’s Report</a> definition of sustainable development (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">WCED, 1987</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), which is a “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. In this theoretical framework, sustainability is generally understood as a balance between the social, environmental and economical dimensions of development. Therefore, the sustainable city is conceived as </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">static entity</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> within the middle of this triangle, in other words, a green place with a just society and a growth economy (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Campbell, 1996</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> The author of this work, on the other hand, has based his answer on a new definition of sustainability, which is “development that satisfies the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">choices</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to make </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">choices</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> of their own” (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Durack, 2001</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). There is a small but significant change. This new interpretation embraces election, <a href="http://paisajetransversal.blogspot.com/2009/09/pottersville.html">contingency</a> and diversity instead of balance or equilibrium. In this new frame, sustainability, thus, is viewed as a coevolutionary process of a people adapting to, while simultaneously changing, the city over time (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Neuman, 2005</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). Consequently the sustainable city is understood in this paper as an </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">open dynamic process</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> instead of a static point in space and time.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> The present work is an attempt to answer the key question whether cities can be really sustainable. As mentioned above, this reply is based on a new and more open interpretation of the sustainability concept. In the first section, the failure of achieving the sustainable city only in terms of shape is analyzed. While in the second section of the essay, the possibilities of sustainable urban process relying on the concepts of ‘urban metabolism’ and ‘urban ecological footprint’ are discussed (note that urban sustainability is a broad issue and this work is focused only in two of its many dimensions).</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A sustainable urban form</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> It has said that whereas time is an explicit dimension in the definitions of sustainable development, space is generally ignored (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Breheny, 1992</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). But since the 80s and early 90s, there has been an increasing concern about the environmental degradation and social deprivation caused by the uncontrolled growth of our cities, what is called ‘urban sprawl’. Some of the problems derived from this are the urban occupation of natural areas, high levels of pollution caused by intense usage of transportation and reduction of social capital (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">CEC, 1990</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). It has suggested that the solution of urban sprawl is the mentioned model of compact city. According to Beatley (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2003</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), compactness policies </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">directly</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> translate into much lower energy use per capita, and lower carbon emissions, air and water pollution, and other resource demands. It has also been argued that the compact city provides a superior cultural, social, and economic base for society (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">CEC, 1990</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). In this same sense, despite that the word ‘sustainability’ does not appear in any of its pages, Jane Jacobs’ </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Death and Life of Great American Cities</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Jacobs, 1961</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) was the first claim for a more dense and functionally mixed city as a solution of social collapse of many American urban communities.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Nevertheless, nowadays it is known that the compact city has raised some crucial contradictions, and hence, it could not be understood as the sustainable panacea. Although urban sprawl has led to longer trips and an increasing dependence on cars which is often associated with energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Muñiz & Galindo, 2005</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), there are not strong evidences that containment policies promote energy savings. For instance, a study carried out by Breheny (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1995</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) in the UK concludes that energy savings from compact-city proposals would be minimal and that other policies, such as promotion of improved vehicle technology and raising of fuel costs, might be more fruitful. Moreover, even in the case that political, technical and economic impediments were not a problem, there are a lot of doubts concerning the social acceptability of higher densities in many urban areas (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Breheny, 1997</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). Finally, Burton (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2000</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) found that for medium-sized English metropolis, higher urban densities may be positive for some aspects of social equity and negative for others, but when looked at in its entirely compactness has a limited correlation with social equity.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Although it has been argued that urban form and land use patterns are major determinants of urban sustainability (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Breatley, 2003</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), conceiving the city in terms of shape is neither necessary nor sufficient to achieve the goals ascribed to the compact city or other sustainable models. According to Breheny (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1992</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), the relationship between urban shape and environmental sustainability may not be as </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">direct</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> as planners would like. What is more, not all socio-economic and environmental conflicts have their roots in spatial or architectural problems (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Campbell, 1996</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). In this regard, Neuman (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2005</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) argues that the shape of a particular city is just a snapshot of a more complex process, and hence, form is not measurable in terms of sustainability: “one cannot overlook the fact that form is both the structure that shapes process and the structure that emerges from a process”. He also states that we should envision the city as a composite of metabolic processes, what has usually been called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_metabolism">urban metabolism</a>.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://urban-complexity.blogspot.com/2009/07/urban-growth-patterns.html"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZLk00kbCDKXn3Xgt9uuvdC6TzpKfDnef26qPE4Emv5z5_IzqfUjQk7drdxRb2qcFf2dco0ujrjDXrKfTTYRgWWqOHdoCCJlFFcpb8rWSwcZASdR0tr1MjZGhiUKdhDLzvdQrqprhzA9w/s320/urbangrowth+copia.jpg" width="286" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Figure 2 </span></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Qualitative comparison between the actual urban data and a correlated percolation model: a) three steps of the growth with time of Berlin and surrounding towns; and b) dynamical urban simulations of the proposed model by Makse and colleagues (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Makse et al.,</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1995</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the next section the possibility of a sustainable urban metabolism will be analyze, but there is still one more thing concerning the urban form that should be discussed here, the relationship between urban form and growth. It has been argued that the properties of human settlements growth emerge from the universal properties of their intrinsic dynamics (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Solé & Goodwin, 2000</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). Therefore, urban planners should understand that city growth and the resulting urban pattern is also caused by an inherent ‘diagram of forces’. As <a href="http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Arcy_Wentworth_Thompson">D’Arcy Thompson</a> pointed out in his </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On Growth and Form</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2003</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), “the form of any portion of matter (living or dead), and the sensible changes of form, that is, its movements and its growth, may in all cases be shown as due to the action of forces”. For instance, urban growth is very sensitive to initial conditions (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Page, 2006</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), intermittency (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Zanette & Manrubia, 1997</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), contingency and other simple forces such as aggregation and diffusion (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Makse et al., 1995; Figure 2</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A sustainable urban metabolism</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> In ecological terms, cities are heterotrophic systems (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Figure 3</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), namely they rely on the primary productivity from other ecosystems beyond their geographical or political boundaries (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Folke et al., 1997; Huang et al., 2001; Terradas, 2001</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). Nearly 40% of potential net primary productivity is used directly, co-opted, or foregone because of human activities (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Vitousek et al., 1987</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). As nowadays the urban population is more than half of the total, more than 20% of the total primary productivity is consumed by human settlements. The same can be said about raw materials, water and other resources and ecological services (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Curwell & Cooper, 1998; Warren-Rhodes & Koenig, 2001</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">According to Huang et al. (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2001</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), cities are situated in a higher energy hierarchy than rural or natural areas. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This idea was stated earlier by authors such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Margalef">Margalef</a> (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1974</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), which suggested that relationships between neighbor ecosystems are asymmetric (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Figure 3</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), and what is more, the more mature ecosystems absorb energy and resources from the simpler. Examples of this phenomenon can be found in hillslope systems (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Terradas, 1982</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) or even in the interaction between the formal and the informal sector of a country (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Moser, 1978</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0nus30ZA2f9i_r4_UMhyQdA6BWZpy220K91tShRWrvlFV_1SUes5hYiYt00fL4Dlv_lchN2cPpwKy7-l8YsZARB5V6rXueaJck9-FXN34SC0A3b1RFZTr6re-jR1SA19Ez-kp-3r_YA/s1600-h/ubansystem1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0nus30ZA2f9i_r4_UMhyQdA6BWZpy220K91tShRWrvlFV_1SUes5hYiYt00fL4Dlv_lchN2cPpwKy7-l8YsZARB5V6rXueaJck9-FXN34SC0A3b1RFZTr6re-jR1SA19Ez-kp-3r_YA/s320/ubansystem1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Figure 3 </span></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The city as an open ecosystem. Cities consume natural resources and ecological services and also disperse waste, pollution and heat into the atmosphere, and aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (based on </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Terradas, 2001</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The materials, energy and food supplies brought into cities, transformed within them and the products and wastes sent out from the cities are often referred to as the urban metabolism (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Huang & Hsu, 2003</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). The existence and maintenance of cities is extremely dependent on the continuous flows of ecological goods and services (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Huang & Chen, 2005</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) and hence, it is in the self-interest of city inhabitants to make sure that ecosystems continue to produce the biophysical preconditions on which they live (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Folke et al., 1997</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). As Rees and Wackernagel (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1996</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) noted, no city or urban region can achieve sustainability on its own. They go on to argue that regardless of local and land use policies, a prerequisite for sustainable cities is sustainable use of global hinterland. In short, we must reduce the <a href="http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/">“ecological footprint”</a> of our cities.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In fact, one of the biggest problems that the cities are up against lies in the linearity and unidirectional character of their metabolisms. Girardet (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1999</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) points out that the linear model of urban production, consumption, and disposal is unsustainable and undermines the overall ecological viability of urban systems, for it has the trend to disrupt the biogeochemical cycles. He goes on to suggest that cities need to adopt circular metabolic systems to assure their own sustainability and that of the natural and rural environments on whose productivity they depend. In other words, in addition to the reduction of the city’s use of natural resources and production of wastes, urban systems should improve their resource and energy efficiency through increasing the spectrum of recycling materials as wells as their livability (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Huang & Hsu, 2003</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Reducing the urban ecological footprint can be technical feasible, the real problem lies in the change of social values that this effort implies. A “26-year urban metabolic checkup” (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Warren-Rhodes & Koenig, 2001</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) carried out in the city of <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Hong+Kong&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Hong+Kong&ei=zPufS7NgjIzSBOXCkKIM&ved=0CAwQ8gEwAA&z=10">Hong Kong</a> shows that overconsumption as well as inefficiency in materials, energy, and water use has been caused a systemic overload of land, atmospheric and water systems, but most importantly, these results were not due to the fact of a lack of knowledge or scientific management. Instead, for approximately 30 years the absence of determined government action, concrete goals and a visionary scope have stymied Hong Kong’s ability to improve its environmental record.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Conclusions</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> In the present work the background, form and processes of the so-called sustainable city have been discussed. In the first section of this works, it is argued that envisioning the city in terms of shape is both contradictory and misleading. For example, the compact city solution, the last model suggested by some academics and decision makers, is surrounded by several doubts concerning both social and environmental issues. In fact, generally there is not a clear relationship between urban form and sustainability. Above all, urban sustainability should consider the processes and flows occurred within and through cities.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> In this regard, in the second section of this paper there has been stated that moving towards sustainability means decreasing the urban ecological footprint, through reduction of pollution as well as natural resource and energy use, and adopting a circular urban metabolism, that is promoting recycling policies and increasing the materials’ lifespan. Therefore, first, if cities attempt to be sustainable should ensure the sustainability of the natural ecosystems on whose productivity they rely on, and secondly, the processes of living, consuming and producing in our metropolis should dramatically change.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> To conclude, cities are understood here as a composite of processes. City inhabitants, thus, are embedded within a coevolutionary trip with their urban environments. In this context, a city will never be sustainable by its own. Instead, we should make sustainable the processes of building, living, working, consuming and commuting that, at the end, shape our cities. Consequently, urban planning must be an open process which channels the many forces that operate within as well as across the city, thus exploiting the opportunities we have inherited and creating potentials for the next generations. It will be the toughest challenge of our time, but also our biggest hope. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 26px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8333px; line-height: 16px;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ramiro Aznar Ballarin</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 13.3333px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">MSc Urban Sustainability (University of Reading)</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sustainable Development essay</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 13.3333px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Click </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/28474126/Can-Cities-Really-Be-Sustainable">here</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to download the </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">references</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 13.3333px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div>Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-18561999778878896382010-01-12T20:40:00.012+00:002010-03-16T21:53:14.280+00:00The Entrepreneurial Urban Regeneration of Bilbao<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivjb6fb8LE-DmylV10RGjOBsrC4PC7PFQXP_UPyEeYvlipFXUN7psJID7VJu88ibNX61bmfOcd1kawuSshQ3AOfeTUuYkskXdSfP4PRX9SI6cDvQlkf1p9NhmRmXd1P3PCtVnHmDNhRBE/s1600-h/9.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Introduction</span></span></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In the last fifteen years, <a href="http://maps.google.es/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=es&geocode=&q=bilbao&sll=40.396764,-3.713379&sspn=8.714905,19.753418&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bilbao,+Vizcaya,+Pa%C3%ADs+Vasco&t=h&z=13">Bilbao</a> (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fig. 1</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) has changed its image from an old city in decline to be considered </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“la nouvelle Mecque de l’urbanisme”</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Masboungi, 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) with the <a href="http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/">Guggenheim museum</a> as the most conspicuous flagship (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">González Ceballos, 2004</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">).</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXKSXLwlGBSZ5nQ8Ori0p3Q9MUkmnFa-sXPIE0ZhJpXm6o207YBSmsmg1wqpg-6QMhLINC7UR0s77TLGR0nflty_G7WkYX88UgRf-1iBmWfAwDKivwGZt8fAX1CLZD1sReqLf_oip5chs/s1600-h/bilbao.satelite.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425963808534150674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXKSXLwlGBSZ5nQ8Ori0p3Q9MUkmnFa-sXPIE0ZhJpXm6o207YBSmsmg1wqpg-6QMhLINC7UR0s77TLGR0nflty_G7WkYX88UgRf-1iBmWfAwDKivwGZt8fAX1CLZD1sReqLf_oip5chs/s400/bilbao.satelite.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></span></span></span></div><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fig. 1. </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Satellite image of the city of Bilbao.</span></span></div></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Nevertheless, the process recently developed in the Basque city is not original neither innovative. Actually, Bilbao is just one more in a large list of cities which followed the regeneration model of some North American and British metropolis such as Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Glasgow or Birmingham (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rodríguez et al., 2006</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). According to Rodríguez et al. (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">2001, p. 167</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">), the strategies used by Bilbao are framed within the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">New Urban Politics</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cox, 1993</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">), “a view that subordinates urban government strategies to the imperatives of globalized capital accumulation”. The authors go on to argue that this new form of urban governance is based on two main components. First, in the last three decades, there has been an inter-city competition to attract international investment and to promote themselves (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Begg, 1999</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). Secondly, the new urban governance system is grounded in the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">entrepreneurial government</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> of Harvey (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1989</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). On the one hand, the entrepreneurialism performed in these urban areas is centered in the speculative notion of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">quangos</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (public-private partnerships) and, on the other hand, it is also more focused on the political economy of the city rather than of territory. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></div><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a name='more'></a></span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Further, it is very difficult to separate the urban restructuring of Bilbao with the territory identity and nationalism issues concerning the Basque Country. In this sense, it has been said that some European cities have experienced identity crisis in its cultures and among its citizens (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Castells, 1994</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). In the case of Bilbao, the spotlight has been in the establishment of the Guggenheim Museum and the role played by the PNV (the Partido Nacionalista Vasco) in this process (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">McNeill, 2000</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">).<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The purpose of the present work is to assess the entrepreneurial practices performed in the urban renewal of Bilbao. In this first section, I will describe how the capital of Biscay has followed almost the same path which <a href="http://maps.google.es/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=es&geocode=&q=glasgow&sll=43.256963,-2.923441&sspn=0.065135,0.154324&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Glasgow,+Lanarkshire,+Reino+Unido&t=h&z=12">Glasgow</a> undertook. Finally, in the second part of the essay, I will focus on the process of globalization suffered in the city, from the decision of becoming a global city at the very beginning, to the lights and shadows of its consequences. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Following the example of Glasgow<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Bilbao and Glasgow show a large amount of geographical and historical similarities. Before undertaking a deeply process of entrepreneurial regeneration, they were European peripheral and nationalist cities under a dramatic dynamics of deindustrialization and urban decline (<a href="http://www.shrinkingcities.com/globaler_kontext.0.html?&L=1\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'">population decrease</a>, loss of employment, poor image, etc.) (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gómez, 1998</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). It is also known that during the first phase of the project, experts from Bilbao went to visit the British city in order to learn from their regeneration experiences (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">González Ceballos, 2004</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). In consequence, during the 1990s Bilbao accomplished almost the same urban strategies that the Scottish city implemented one decade before. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> These entrepreneurial practices were based on two key elements. First, the focus was on changing their old and grey image into a new global one (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Paddison, 1993; Gómez, 1998</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). In order to achieve this goal, the cities developed transformations of their built environment and used aggressive place-marketing campaigns (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Vicario and Martínez, 2003</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). In the first case, on the one hand, centric “opportunity sites” were strategically chosen to allocate emblematic projects (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fig. 2</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">), and, on the other hand, transport, cultural and new trade and conference infrastructures were constructed to stand out as symbols of modernity and renewal (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Boyle and Hughes, 1994; Rodríguez and Martínez, 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). In addition to the physical environment improvements, place-marketing campaigns were carried out. A good example of this is the different slogans used in Glasgow such as ‘<a href="http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/misc/images/glasgow_smiles_better.jpg">Glasgow’s Miles Better</a>’ or ‘<a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/6/11941585_9b954a917f.jpg?v=0">There’s Glasgowing on</a>’ (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Paddison, 1993;</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Boyle and Hughes, 1994</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). Another common entrepreneurial strategy consisted in assigning most of projects to “signature” architects. In the case of Bilbao, architects like Frank Ghery, Sir Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli or Arata Isozaki designed the major projects undertaken in the city (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Vicario and Martínez, 2003</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; color: #0000ee; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425964792754590322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivjb6fb8LE-DmylV10RGjOBsrC4PC7PFQXP_UPyEeYvlipFXUN7psJID7VJu88ibNX61bmfOcd1kawuSshQ3AOfeTUuYkskXdSfP4PRX9SI6cDvQlkf1p9NhmRmXd1P3PCtVnHmDNhRBE/s400/9.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 256px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></span></span></span></div><div><b></b><br />
<b><div style="display: inline !important; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fig. 2.</span></span></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Picture of the city of Bilbao. In the foreground, it can be observed one of the main emblematic projects, Abandoibarra. On the left side of the picture, it can be distinguished the figure of the Guggenheim Museum and, on the right side, the Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall.</span></span></span></span></div></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Second, the final consolidation of the shift </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">from managerialism to entrepreneurialism</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Harvey, 1989</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) was the formation of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">quangos</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> or public and private partnerships. These new agencies acted as a private corporation but uses civic resources, thus promoting the efficiency, flexibility and proactivity (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rodríguez et al. 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). In the case of Glasgow, the hosting of the City of Culture of 1990 operated as a trigger for creating Glasgow Action in the first place, and Glasgow Development Agency, in the second (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Boyle and Hughes, 1994</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). Similarly, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVfhcKQtycc">the Spanish post-1992 hangover</a> was the catalyst which mainly provoked the constitution of Bilbao Metrópoli 30 (BM30) and Bilbao Ría 2000 (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gómez, 1998</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). While the first ones (Glasgow Action and BM30) were the quasi-public agencies whose objectives were based on planning and projecting the new city image. In contrast, the seconds (Glasgow Development Agency and Bilbao Ría 2000) were the ones to develop the major projects of the regeneration scheme (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gómez, 1998; Rodríguez and Martínez, 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). Specifically, Bilbao Ría 2000 was responsible for the redevelopment of Abandoibarra following a self-financed system through various land valorization mechanisms (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rodríguez et al. 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). Abandoibarra was initially designed to become a command and control center, but now it is considered a consumption space for the urban elite (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rodríguez et al., 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">).<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> It is important to highlight that the true legacies of the resulting entrepreneurial landscape may have ambivalent interpretations. Although the images of Glasgow and Bilbao have really changed and they are international considered as cultural and creative cities, the privatization of urban planning has brought a downtown bias, thus accentuating social exclusion and polarization (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rodríguez and Martínez, 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). Perhaps the best way to summarize this is quoting this Bilbao’s real-estate advertising found in one of its main streets: “Many will see it from the outside … Only a few will enjoy it from the inside” (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Vicario and Martínez, 2003</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">).<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Basque paths of Globalization<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> It has been argued that Bilbao has continuously suffered a historical dynamics of globalization and de-globalization (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">del Cerro Santamaría, 2005</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). However, in this section, the only focus of importance is the last attempt of Bilbao to become a global city. In this context, a global city is understood as a place where highly specialized services and financial goods are produced (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sassen, 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). Therefore, the globalization process is defined as the integration of urban systems within the new flows of the global economy (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Castells, 1994</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). Although there is an important controversy whether Bilbao has become or not a global city (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">McNeill, 2000; Rodríguez et al., 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). According to the last list of the <a href="http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/">Globalization and World Cities network research</a> (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Taylor et al., 2009</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">), Bilbao is situated as one of the new emergent world cities (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fig. 3</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx509JjjkNTk7491rdzs5A08-WVo7gazboJStBfkKXxzt50Wspc3e4wJlchGmZA8HSP870OcclCVTaU82JO2btbNRn3P4OE9B5I087oMu3NDu93j2gZhFllilkx1PDF5XWcJQDdyYCqLg/s1600-h/gawc2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425963813790776418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx509JjjkNTk7491rdzs5A08-WVo7gazboJStBfkKXxzt50Wspc3e4wJlchGmZA8HSP870OcclCVTaU82JO2btbNRn3P4OE9B5I087oMu3NDu93j2gZhFllilkx1PDF5XWcJQDdyYCqLg/s400/gawc2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 259px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fig. 3.</span></span></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Geography of all major control and command centres. The black arrow points to the location of Bilbao (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">modified from Taylor et al., 2009</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">).</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> As I mentioned above, 1992 was a date full of meaning for the Basque authorities. However, this year is considered the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">annus mirabilis</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> for the Spanish culture (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">McNeill, 2000</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). Spain opened to the world through a series of international events: Barcelona held the Olympic Games, Seville a World Expo and Madrid the European City of Culture title. However, no Basque city participated in these celebrations albeit it was clear that “the Basque elite was both desirous to be excluded from any association with a ‘New Spain’, but was equally keen to retain its political strength relative to other Spanish regions” (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">McNeill, 2000</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). The PNV’s solution to this dilemma was the establishment of a Guggenheim museum in the city of Bilbao. According to McNeill (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">2000, p. 487</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">):<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: 28.3pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Guggenheim offered a </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Basque-controlled flagship</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> which advertised Basque difference (and financial autonomy) to the world, yet which represented Euzkadi [the name of the Basque Country in Euskera] not as a primordial backwater [terrorism, deindustrialization] but as a society at ease with global modernity. [my emphasis]<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This achievement was carried out by the PNV’s leaders in completely secrecy, thereby raising questions about its democratic nature (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">González Ceballos, 2004</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">).<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Since the opening of the Frank Ghery’s museum in 1997, there has been a significantly increase of tourists visiting the Basque city (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Plaza, 1999</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). However, the role of the museum in attracting other kind of flows is unclear (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gómez and González, 2001</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). In addition, once the so-called “Guggenheim effect” has vanished, the Basque authorities of the city of Bilbao will have to ask again whether they want to invest in their own or in foreign culture. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Conclusions<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> An assessment of the entrepreneurial practices carried out in the city of Bilbao raises two major issues. First, the resulting urban landscape has strengthened the socio-spatial fragmentation of the city. Following the path of Glasgow, the downtown bias and the subordination of the planning to the private-public partnerships have promoted new speculative and exclusive spaces (e.g. Abandoibarra), whilst the rest of the urban fabric has been forgotten.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Secondly, the globalization of Basque Country region, especially thanks to the endowment of the Guggenheim museum within Bilbao, hides two main interpretations. It is paradoxical that the way Basque’s elite have globalized Bilbao has been through an international figure instead of investing in their own culture. The other key element is concerning the evident undemocratic spirit of the decisions taken by the PNV’s leaders which points out the authoritative nature of the process. Further, once the “Guggenheim effect” will have disappeared, Bilbao citizens will start to ask whether </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">feeding the downtown monster</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> was worth.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ramiro Aznar Ballarin</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">MSc Urban Sustainability (University of Reading)</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Urban Governance and Planning report</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Click </span><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/25119553/References"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to download the </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">references</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div>Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-17128260848686110002009-10-11T17:45:00.004+01:002009-10-11T18:00:04.750+01:00Citizenship<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcTCJFH79EjoePmhoAs_oqaJ4xVnpgU3eCRxoxoa0mxU8Rhi7GHT8Cwn5VnnwCQgP7g9TfQ2hq0-W4gpjjilCXMArlG-dm3FYh60OD6-cvVBh-X77IVUdXXR_wg-a_XjpkxRxT2LlBDg/s1600-h/voters.jpg"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcTCJFH79EjoePmhoAs_oqaJ4xVnpgU3eCRxoxoa0mxU8Rhi7GHT8Cwn5VnnwCQgP7g9TfQ2hq0-W4gpjjilCXMArlG-dm3FYh60OD6-cvVBh-X77IVUdXXR_wg-a_XjpkxRxT2LlBDg/s1600-h/voters.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcTCJFH79EjoePmhoAs_oqaJ4xVnpgU3eCRxoxoa0mxU8Rhi7GHT8Cwn5VnnwCQgP7g9TfQ2hq0-W4gpjjilCXMArlG-dm3FYh60OD6-cvVBh-X77IVUdXXR_wg-a_XjpkxRxT2LlBDg/s400/voters.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391387881403266402" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px; " /></a></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Citizenship is a condition of civic equality.</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> It consists of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">membership</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of a political community where all citizens can determine the terms of social cooperation on a equal basis. This status not only secures equal rights to the enjoyment of the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">collective goods</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> provided by the political association but also involves</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> equal duties</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> to promote and sustain then - including the good of democratic citizenship itself.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">CITIZENSHIP A Very Short Introduction</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/spp/people/richard-bellamy">RICHARD BELLAMY</a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div>Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-80735205875064083472009-10-07T14:50:00.005+01:002009-10-07T15:02:19.977+01:00Urban Complexity against the Spanish scientific budget cut<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-RTQleNeRo1St3qmYhGeNodWU0oiT6jpcEIemyIAPKMiY2tR-6XdUjUD06ZTBvunhSWEsSsKtx6scmciMqyCrSF7pwNe5bo1sUOVu8kADy53X8GZe0Iw8ZoE7tAe6vo7MdqgAupfcO0/s400/scissors.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 389px; height: 400px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389855810256353698" /><div style="text-align: center;">Click <a href="http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Carta/abierta/Gobierno/elpepusoc/20091001elpepisoc_3/Tes">here</a> and <a href="http://aldea-irreductible.blogspot.com/2009/10/la-ciencia-en-espana-no-necesita.html">here</a> for more information.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-6035728210538492702009-10-03T20:01:00.030+01:002010-03-16T21:53:45.179+00:00Pottersville<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pottersville</span></span></span></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is not the town of the most famous magician of contemporary literature. Pottersville is a dark village, lit only by neon lights and where looting, gambling and drinking reign everywhere. It owes its name to the owner of everything that exists in the city, Henry F. Potter, much like </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">citizen Kane</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 55px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; color: #0000ee; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388454869141160146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqdfzER7Gh0_lc6ZeNC9uf7ZsmjIMYNuPsSVbXLrUGhlCelcaayWdRijSN6nh94FdVzzREXbTRgou3cmJNGQR3PxMtMWM17DHoXM0VOqQ-5kmBQkk_szD0t-QIJxwXwHxVXtVfwqKcHA/s400/rewind.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 294px;" /></span></span></span></div></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 18px;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></span></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 18px;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span></span></o:p></span></span></div></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 55px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; color: #0000ee; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This is an alternative </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bedford Falls</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> without George Bailey, in the Capra’s film </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It’s a wonderful life!</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> It is also the favorite example of </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">S. J. Gould</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">in his </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Wonderful Life</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to explain the meaning of </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">contingency</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. In his book, Gould (whom some will remember as the mustache paleontologist that appears in </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Simpsons</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) proposes a </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">new conception of the History of life</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. On the one hand, he dismisses </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the traditional iconography and the cone scale</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, namely evolution as an inexorable progress of increasing complexity, in which the final and inevitable result is the human conscience. By contrast, Gould argues that life we know today is the result of the contingency. If the tape of life could be rewind and modify some variables. Then play it again, the film would be (completely) different.</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></div><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then Pottersville is not desired a city. It is consequence of contingency. Removing or changing one single factor and everything will be different. This recalls the </span><a href="http://urban-complexity.blogspot.com/2009/07/urban-growth-patterns.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">chaotic or fractal models that simulate urban growth</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">These models are highly sensitive to the initial conditions</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, a minimum change and the system will evolve toward a different attractor. Thus, we could recreate several scenarios as alternative cities. Cities </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">a la carte</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Cities desired. </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Wonderful cities</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It turns out that </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">not all Pottersville are possible</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Our </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Orwellian</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> imagination has deceived us. The </span><a href="http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">game of life</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is far more restrictive than we thought. There are </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">no man in the castle</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, or </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Presence_of_Mine_Enemies"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">presence of mine enemies</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. But maybe </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFX-dKpcDz8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bush was beaten by that Iraqi shoe</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I would like to continue with more biological analogies. But instead of taking them from the field of evolution, I will pick them from the world of </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">developmental biology</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Both sciences share a directional meaning. The embryonic and postembryonic development is a continuous process of structure formation and modification. New advances in genetics have unraveled many of the keys to understanding the basis of this intricate process.</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But one thing is to have the instructions for assembling the IKEA’s shelf GREVBÄCK and quite another to make it yourself. The final result will depend on internal factors (instructions, pieces) and external (you, environment). Similarly, agencies are developed under internal and external conditions. Regarding the latter, everyone knows the importance of a pregnant woman to feed properly. Concerning internal conditions, we have seen that genes are not everything (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_in_our_genes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Not in our genes</span></a></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). A good example of that is the formation of the cap of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Acetabularia</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, which is created according to a calcium gradient in its apical (</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphic_field"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">morphogenetic field</span></a></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">), and not by some nucleus biochemistry.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD06bpuz55b0rueFduhLymt6CJ_z1XYT3ftWrhS5T790TaBymaXJjbI8vGFKz6qyn0FFgybNmCmJr69PV3s1zuNjiMihfBNStNe23b-dxvPZZwZonRhMBQdDgAeYR5LtP7jwGJye8g884/s1600-h/berger-large.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388454857325353170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD06bpuz55b0rueFduhLymt6CJ_z1XYT3ftWrhS5T790TaBymaXJjbI8vGFKz6qyn0FFgybNmCmJr69PV3s1zuNjiMihfBNStNe23b-dxvPZZwZonRhMBQdDgAeYR5LtP7jwGJye8g884/s400/berger-large.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 291px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I would love to end this text with one of the most amazing structures in nature: the eye. The eye has always been the favorite object of study within this field. Its structural complexity has served as example of both </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Creationists</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Darwinists</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. On the one hand, a wonder created by a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">bearded watchmaker</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and on the other hand, a complex functional structure made very patiently by a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_watchmaker"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">blind watchmaker</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. However, neither point of view is right (although the last one is far closer). The fact that eyes have evolved independently many times puts us in a different scenario. </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The shape of the eye is a powerful biological attractor; this explains the convergence in design</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; color: #0000ee; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388454862036292466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4TsNW7K3vtMqFMDsk6652GhS_3ufFVFRlQXoGkzOxdAVnWSgS8wSaJSyIeQ-SeLTOpIu5CrkDAjQMWjZXUiikZCWGeiDYi_fhS0zSYFx4gDyYKftXAkmy-NLEsU0E8uNcZqqopILLwaU/s400/br_eye.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 265px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So... is there convergence in the creation and evolution of cities? Are there only a few Pottersvilles? Which are the attractors for each city?</span></span></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pottersville in Spanish:</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><a href="http://paisajetransversal.blogspot.com/2009/09/pottersville.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pottersville (I)</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><a href="http://paisajetransversal.blogspot.com/2009/09/pottersville-ii.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pottersville (II)</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span></div>Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-25807571921099589702009-09-24T19:25:00.007+01:002009-09-26T20:16:04.832+01:00Niches and Invaders<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">niche</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> is a term describing the functional position of a species in its ecosystem. In nature there are predators and preys, generalist and specialist species, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">key </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">species and so on. An </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">invasive species</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> is an exotic species </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that adversely affect the habitats they invade economically, environmentally or/and ecologically. </span><a href="http://paisajetransversal.blogspot.com/2009/08/alien.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> you can find a good example in São Miguel Island (the Açores, Portugal).</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZjuCVVXp7KNAE1NZzrINHkfm-v2uUQlE5xytKZDoSqJ51fHA8Ry9pDQa4SIJpCnJi8Ei7v7iciT4l-SrF2rOBj6WY48NiJ9rFnujmZAEwuZgAJG4NaYNBMOR0j4Lu3JoUAx6l1FBZS5I/s400/niches.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 126px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385103149713605282" /><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">On the other hand, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">on both sides of the commercial streets of most occidental cities, there are plenty of different niches.</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> There is a niche filled by big book stores like Borders (US), Waterstones (UK) or La Casa del Libro (Spain). But it is possible as well observe McDonalds, IKEA or Zara everywhere. </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Because of Globalization, these sort of stores and restaurants are invading our urban ecosystems</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.<br /><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ckWA5E3CX3nRs_QyoaubIGvfc49MgvFtOWoCWCDHu09Mn3FJOirJD9tusayW2L_UD89mTsZQPGynnhZp0NAv9blmajn9q4u7jCyX8FLKr9Y_N1ojkRHSR2lLT0uokE78rzFSjjvXx3s/s400/invaders.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385103154799551874" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 108px; " /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></span></p></div>Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-89150014911743869182009-09-18T15:35:00.012+01:002009-09-27T09:35:38.941+01:00Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come on Age<div face="trebuchet ms" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">International Conference</span></span></span></div><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> </span><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;font-family:trebuchet ms;" align="center"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">COMPLEXITY THEORIES OF CITIES HAVE COME OF AGE</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/19891152"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfBSnxH7Mi45UKG2Wv9bq5T7oAStK4PZJT519j8DQEIEuuVrLfgHXvjNgmO0JwX0XsGKQ9aup5wi2y9Af-wdhZIsbbRJasks07uiujL28yycG197wtVEFSC8Vd7vFv3dUKNWy4OIZChRA/s320/conferencias.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382817395250425938" border="0" /></a></p> </span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;" align="left"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">1. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Achievements, criticism and potentials yet to be realized</span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">2. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Implications to planning and urban design</span></span></span></div> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"> </p> <p style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" align="center"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">TU Delft, September 25 </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">- </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">27</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> 2009</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.complexitytheoriesofcities.com/" target="_blank"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">http://www.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><wbr>complexitytheoriesofcities.com</span></span></a></span></p></span></span><div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Three decades of research have established the field of </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">complexity theories of cities (CTC)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> as a dominant approach to cities with </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">urban simulation models (USM)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> as its major methodological tool. Now that the field has come of age, it is time to stop for a moment, look back at what has been achieved, with appreciation, but also with sober criticism and then look forward at potentials that have yet to be realized.</span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /></div><br /></div>Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-90660270312473630302009-09-16T19:44:00.008+01:002009-09-18T15:34:13.522+01:00Cities<span style="text-decoration: underline;">
<br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb9k8jOQogYoEhPhzRucs1KeDmoAfNnPfu8GyYmdY4zfWFR231Lrq8udIS8g1-X-ZKGHu5ytQiCKAogGNTXc15RtHPm92XpnvmX1c288F2QZal9a2Et9-P6RWpOodCwf85qULR4wAOTtY/s1600-h/simcity4deluxepic1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb9k8jOQogYoEhPhzRucs1KeDmoAfNnPfu8GyYmdY4zfWFR231Lrq8udIS8g1-X-ZKGHu5ytQiCKAogGNTXc15RtHPm92XpnvmX1c288F2QZal9a2Et9-P6RWpOodCwf85qULR4wAOTtY/s320/simcity4deluxepic1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382140189524519666" border="0" /></a>
<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" ><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Cities are population aggregates that do not produce for themselves the means of subsistence.</span></b><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> From their origins, the existence of cities is based on a technical, social and spatial division of production and involves exchanges of various kinds between those who produce subsistence and those who produce manufactured goods, symbolic goods, power and protection. Urbanization dynamics is linked to the potential interaction offered by cities, its <i style="">urbanity</i>, ie <b style="">the power that produces the grouping of large number of people in the same place</b>.</span></span><p style="text-align: right; font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-style: italic; text-align: right; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Les nouveaux principes de l'urbanisme. La fin des villes n'est pas à l'ordre du jour</span></p><div style="text-align: right; font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Ascher">FRANÇOIS ASCHER</a>
<br />
<br /></span></div><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br />Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-78327894384508392192009-09-07T10:57:00.030+01:002009-09-07T13:22:10.397+01:00Daisyworld <span style=";font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock">James Lovelock</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" > and Andrew Watson published a short paper in </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://www.gps.caltech.edu/%7Eals/GBC/problem_sets/ps-1_daisyworld/watson_and_lovelock_1983.pdf">1983</a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" > to ilustrate a simple example of how the </span><b style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" face="trebuchet ms">Gaia hypothesis</b><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" > works. This was based in a world with the following characteristics:</span>
<br /></span> <ul style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The model simulates a planet that is orbiting a sun whose radiant energy is slowly increasing</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"> (just like the Sun and the Earth). The planet’s soil is 5º C.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><b style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The world is seeded with two types of daisies: black and white</span></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;">. The black ones have an <span style="font-style: italic;">albedo</span> of 0.25 (absorb light) and the white ones, on the other hand, 0.75 (reflect light).</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Both flowers can live in a range of temperature</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"> (between 5º and 40º C), and their optimal point is 20º C.</span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">According to these rules and variables, we run the model. The next figures simulate the partial coverage of daisies. Conversly, the result of the simulation is showed in the following graphic. In the model, the black and white daisies are represented as black and white features respectively, and the bare ground is red colored.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsdVSuyEJeqXLsYh_uWFhwLJyBvTgSTihoXUM7oymYpvi4_dq2Hg9youV9K5eIRkxly1hvpJGpJO6c-BGnva4AHA8TEZbWmEO5D37u4LrQdlAdoqyiGNdxzEiPItVcQZLRO6yB5J9dhbs/s1600-h/graf.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsdVSuyEJeqXLsYh_uWFhwLJyBvTgSTihoXUM7oymYpvi4_dq2Hg9youV9K5eIRkxly1hvpJGpJO6c-BGnva4AHA8TEZbWmEO5D37u4LrQdlAdoqyiGNdxzEiPItVcQZLRO6yB5J9dhbs/s320/graf.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378673834255319810" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 320px;" border="0" /></a>
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">At the begining of the simulation, the sun's rays are weak and Daisyworld is too cold to support any life.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUlx32rO3plVq766kdI1VZaihATgaE0ezoqIeFq45QpyJBQZq1hB4gsazux7zAVCjfqunDIZXlK8OhfurALIwLKPmBaAALTA0MNXG8oZSYibcc0P2uiRd0XHaHb5wANZnTfwj9tJlTsMc/s1600-h/1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 167px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUlx32rO3plVq766kdI1VZaihATgaE0ezoqIeFq45QpyJBQZq1hB4gsazux7zAVCjfqunDIZXlK8OhfurALIwLKPmBaAALTA0MNXG8oZSYibcc0P2uiRd0XHaHb5wANZnTfwj9tJlTsMc/s200/1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378674676265149090" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CCPU%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">As the radiant energy of the sun increases, germination of black daisies becomes possible. The black variety is the first in making his apareance because they absorb light, as a result they are warm enough to survive. Eventually, they can spread over most part of the surface of the hypothetical planet. This provokes an increase of the global temperature and allows white daisies to show up.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAJ1KeRdWpUQZeVhnoc7qiJMO6m1AAwIAUey4NsIOgogr3MWCHATScfDa93bxuVkAQW9Zgb43kyOZByEbOpdGXWzs21weFkRQDEZk296v3_J5qRFNqP-q69502mJ53r-58TUFpUzqKWE0/s1600-h/2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 176px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAJ1KeRdWpUQZeVhnoc7qiJMO6m1AAwIAUey4NsIOgogr3MWCHATScfDa93bxuVkAQW9Zgb43kyOZByEbOpdGXWzs21weFkRQDEZk296v3_J5qRFNqP-q69502mJ53r-58TUFpUzqKWE0/s200/2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378674680248330578" border="0" /></a>
<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Both communities can survive together in a dynamic equilibrium for a long time. In this phase, it is possible to achieve certain control of the levels of temperature: black daisies can increase them because they abosrb light and white ones can decrease them because they reflect light.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" face="trebuchet ms"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="trebuchet ms"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivN0KxvBebqLseITvk9sE12GCfjG3vWF8fZClw-F6Y22d-VV0xbY_sT3eJj__8-K-tXbo-dYDo_bhSeu9lzpCPKdrOb2dvuyAsga2V7flvwltmAmaH4suv1RffyizVDe6uiNEWZH8SZZs/s1600-h/3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivN0KxvBebqLseITvk9sE12GCfjG3vWF8fZClw-F6Y22d-VV0xbY_sT3eJj__8-K-tXbo-dYDo_bhSeu9lzpCPKdrOb2dvuyAsga2V7flvwltmAmaH4suv1RffyizVDe6uiNEWZH8SZZs/s200/3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378674684641477618" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="trebuchet ms"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUlx32rO3plVq766kdI1VZaihATgaE0ezoqIeFq45QpyJBQZq1hB4gsazux7zAVCjfqunDIZXlK8OhfurALIwLKPmBaAALTA0MNXG8oZSYibcc0P2uiRd0XHaHb5wANZnTfwj9tJlTsMc/s1600-h/1.jpg">
<br /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">As the energy of the sun increases, white daisies become to be more adapted than black daisies in this new situation. White daisies can mantain a suitable temperature thanks to their key property: reflecting sun rays. The surface of the world becomes whiter day by day.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivN0KxvBebqLseITvk9sE12GCfjG3vWF8fZClw-F6Y22d-VV0xbY_sT3eJj__8-K-tXbo-dYDo_bhSeu9lzpCPKdrOb2dvuyAsga2V7flvwltmAmaH4suv1RffyizVDe6uiNEWZH8SZZs/s1600-h/3.jpg">
<br /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLS9C2TnkR-d4JcQSKj67Rn7RXXmIiScxnjZ7CXrFXhnY7AmcOgyYP-ZjvC4GVI-djAqvBfeU6WOuN7Nomya90b7wDHxNTdRgVqjhtNxJXAw8IB4AVb9AQfycFjWO3bjqUj_7u6WIgkM4/s1600-h/4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLS9C2TnkR-d4JcQSKj67Rn7RXXmIiScxnjZ7CXrFXhnY7AmcOgyYP-ZjvC4GVI-djAqvBfeU6WOuN7Nomya90b7wDHxNTdRgVqjhtNxJXAw8IB4AVb9AQfycFjWO3bjqUj_7u6WIgkM4/s200/4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378674693381258050" border="0" /></a></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CCPU%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CCPU%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">In the end, only white daisies can survive for a while in this hell. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The sun's rays have grown so powerful that soon even the white daisies can no longer survive.</span><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUlx32rO3plVq766kdI1VZaihATgaE0ezoqIeFq45QpyJBQZq1hB4gsazux7zAVCjfqunDIZXlK8OhfurALIwLKPmBaAALTA0MNXG8oZSYibcc0P2uiRd0XHaHb5wANZnTfwj9tJlTsMc/s1600-h/1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 167px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUlx32rO3plVq766kdI1VZaihATgaE0ezoqIeFq45QpyJBQZq1hB4gsazux7zAVCjfqunDIZXlK8OhfurALIwLKPmBaAALTA0MNXG8oZSYibcc0P2uiRd0XHaHb5wANZnTfwj9tJlTsMc/s200/1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378674676265149090" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Daisyworld</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> is a model very simple, but it is enough to show that our planet, the Earth, is in the middle of this simulation. We (human beings) must be there. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Lovelock points out that life sustains life. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">But if something may go wrong, the new environmental conditions that the Earth system creates because of its own regulation, can be extremely damaging (but not for life).
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">As hard as they try humankind can not eliminate life.</span> On the other hand, it can be very easy to kill themselves.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p>Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-48281531414505983812009-08-13T13:01:00.001+01:002009-09-16T20:21:56.542+01:00Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >By Steven Johnson</span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“What ants, neurons, cities and software have in common?”</span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSx_ttiGWXQTIzp4l8Zz0pUCuhsm7ZXvOAuCrrBKiF0oLAPUl4YaHf6PVK4kj_9UBUE1ZOWmFEbVmtFRYUsz_T6HfEDVg1K_7lrC4jeRQ81iYMW74ZMvkcQrO1Zg92pa-8x51sUBaAov0/s1600-h/emergence2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 218px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSx_ttiGWXQTIzp4l8Zz0pUCuhsm7ZXvOAuCrrBKiF0oLAPUl4YaHf6PVK4kj_9UBUE1ZOWmFEbVmtFRYUsz_T6HfEDVg1K_7lrC4jeRQ81iYMW74ZMvkcQrO1Zg92pa-8x51sUBaAov0/s320/emergence2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369418198363182050" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Steven Johnson</span> (founder of <a href="http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed">Feed</a>, one of the first online magazines) introduces us in the amazing world of ant colonies, mold, neighbourhoods, neurons and software dynamics.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">These communities have the same pattern of behaviour. Every each of them creates an emergence system. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Their basic elements act locally, as a result it emerges a global behaviour. </span>The ants of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Gordon">Deborah Gordon</a> do not follow the orders of their queen. They act according to a gradient of pheromones and contacts between other ants. Because of this ants are one of the most successful organisms in the Earth. This pattern appears also in mold aggregations. You can find in the web <a href="http://education.mit.edu/starlogo/">StarLogo</a>, the software uses to model the complex dynamics of these curious live beings. </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXr3mt1cVpEpan5I44pYcK_gu_iIsC44d1H3OIlOMbdYhwvcVhnqQcP7fmJ1CYMIGBZe9d6GUoPmCviHAtK_vlJQSJ-JWA_pZFZzTQkIWtD4VTkXPsF6uXZwkt7BUQ87y0gRC-dkWE9zU/s1600-h/ants_routes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXr3mt1cVpEpan5I44pYcK_gu_iIsC44d1H3OIlOMbdYhwvcVhnqQcP7fmJ1CYMIGBZe9d6GUoPmCviHAtK_vlJQSJ-JWA_pZFZzTQkIWtD4VTkXPsF6uXZwkt7BUQ87y0gRC-dkWE9zU/s320/ants_routes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369418207859185650" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />Besides ants and molds, Johnson explains that emergence occurs also in human creations as cities and software. He points out the importance of the analysis of <span style="font-style: italic;">Death and Life of Great American Cities</span> written by <a href="http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs">Jane Jacobs</a>. Her famous <span style="font-weight: bold;">“ballet of sidewalks”</span> must be the key factor which a neighbourhood works. The diversity of interactions between neighbours and strangers were the foundations of neighbourhood guilds like Port Santa Maria in Florence. Nowadays these sorts of relationships are becoming extinct because of the appearance of the new edge cities, megalopolis that are created around great malls in the convergence of several highways. The only possible interaction between individuals in these urban systems is by car...</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1ewXA6nqSJtoTLSxXUyFSbTeyU0Z3e11btNx8Yz7xxFQmDNycoFkV4AqAEoOf3QSItU9W50NvhzC8nbrVaIGZjEJ6kfmgJROByw4irUIPGPMblL4JpeJ3OKfdcZWyPLnymbBxQH2IFE/s1600-h/ballet_sidewalks.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1ewXA6nqSJtoTLSxXUyFSbTeyU0Z3e11btNx8Yz7xxFQmDNycoFkV4AqAEoOf3QSItU9W50NvhzC8nbrVaIGZjEJ6kfmgJROByw4irUIPGPMblL4JpeJ3OKfdcZWyPLnymbBxQH2IFE/s320/ballet_sidewalks.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369418218804698498" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Finally, <span style="font-style: italic;">Emergence</span> shows us the important role of webs as <a href="http://slashdot.org/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Slashdot.org</span></a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">Amazon.com</a> or <a href="http://www.ebay.com/">eBay</a>. The first one (created by Rob Malda) is a digital blog of news and comments that are controlled by the own users. They vote positively the best and interesting opinions and vote negatively the worst and spam ones. It sounds like Darwin Natural Selection and is also very similar to the biddings that you can find in eBay. On the other hand, Amazon uses very simple algorithms to join products that the costumer may like (“Costumers who bought that also bought this”). This kind of software is the basis of new routes which are configuring the chaos of Internet. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Small actions of each blog writer, costumer or seller create a global pattern just like ants and neighbours do in their colonies and cities.<br /><br /><br /></span></span>Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-55907207453456673592009-07-10T19:57:00.000+01:002009-08-13T16:29:24.613+01:00Urban Growth Patterns<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CCPU%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-style: italic;">“Are there laws which determine the number, size, and distribution of towns?” </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB">W. CHRISTALLER</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEO08DeAvgO2t5QqfMcu1_cBu1W7SPUHI3rbdmMlhSapQ_7NXOAk2nOOochMHtGU_rY8ehLgHhyz0lP2hdNBA6FR5oBg4iBL752JV5ZyPqB_Z7-GDBlI69Z9NnldcqNDytySWiM_SwzGA/s1600-h/urban-growth.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEO08DeAvgO2t5QqfMcu1_cBu1W7SPUHI3rbdmMlhSapQ_7NXOAk2nOOochMHtGU_rY8ehLgHhyz0lP2hdNBA6FR5oBg4iBL752JV5ZyPqB_Z7-GDBlI69Z9NnldcqNDytySWiM_SwzGA/s320/urban-growth.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356908542917840354" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://polymer.bu.edu/hes/articles/mhs95.pdf">MAKSE et al.</a> Developped in the 90s a mathematical model (<span style="font-style: italic;">Correlated Percolation Model</span>) that relates the pysical form of a city and the system within which it exits. This was based on the ideas of <span style="font-weight: bold;">percolation theory</span> and they took into account two key points.
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB">First, data on population density of actual urban systems are known to conform to the relation <span style="font-weight: bold;">ρ(r)= ρ</span><sub style="font-weight: bold;">0</sub><span style="font-weight: bold;">e</span><sup style="font-weight: bold;">-λr</sup> where r is the radial distance from the urban core, and λ is the density gradient.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"> Second, in actual urban systems,<span style="font-weight: bold;"> the development units are not positioned at random</span>. Rather, there exist correlations arisin from the fact that when a development unit is located in a given place, the probability of adjacent development units increases. The next figure shows a qualitatie comparison between the actual urban data and the proposed model.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ftwfv5vDceQEQphDOdq0iRADd3VXA6oDnJ8YoiBSg27dgCOpTLfu-ID19Jn00DNDbEm9DR4JNYEfhLLlhxCwj7GBbMvyIfGo4upAAn1bPaBBOlNSQYCPM7B5xKrqOd4JZfLQUDCY7JM/s1600-h/Berlin-Model.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ftwfv5vDceQEQphDOdq0iRADd3VXA6oDnJ8YoiBSg27dgCOpTLfu-ID19Jn00DNDbEm9DR4JNYEfhLLlhxCwj7GBbMvyIfGo4upAAn1bPaBBOlNSQYCPM7B5xKrqOd4JZfLQUDCY7JM/s320/Berlin-Model.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356908548694728418" border="0" /></a></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB">In addition to the strongly correlation between the morphology of actual urban areas and the urban systems obtained in our simulation, the dynamics of the model shows a remarkable pattern of <span style="font-weight: bold;">decentralization</span>, a phenomena that occurs in most of the cities in the world.
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB"><span style=""> </span> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">The use of fractal or chaotic models leads us to view cities as self-organized systems by local actions instead of designs for a centralized intelligence</span>. This fact could give us a wide variety of valuable information concerning the way cities grow and change, and more importantly, the way they might be planned and managed. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7811254110875508127.post-7187251018781816742009-05-30T12:44:00.000+01:002009-05-30T14:22:50.623+01:00Welcome!<span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CCPU%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;">Welcome to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Urban Complexity</span>, a blog where current issues related to the ecology and complexity of urban systems will be discussed.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWYO6Xd66KgcP4bYxoBUOZHgSlnle3QEecW1gjZveXBJdomd4SL74MS4PJC-AdbTL7SLqZyJbuixRhyk5fwliasEhAm3_bdhPwZ_EF1853dnQlZxMKKrVB22JabyFflci7D9kr3ZGqCp4/s1600-h/Urban+Landscape.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 195px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWYO6Xd66KgcP4bYxoBUOZHgSlnle3QEecW1gjZveXBJdomd4SL74MS4PJC-AdbTL7SLqZyJbuixRhyk5fwliasEhAm3_bdhPwZ_EF1853dnQlZxMKKrVB22JabyFflci7D9kr3ZGqCp4/s320/Urban+Landscape.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341581886657169970" border="0" /></a>
<br /></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;">In this blog you will be able to find essays, reports, biographies, book reviews, news, etc. concerning a wide variety of fields of study like sustainability, bioclimatic architecture, urban ecology, complex networks, Global Warming or landscape management.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" >We also encourage you to participate and send us any interesting contribution on a topic pertaining to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Urban Complexity</span>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> Ramirohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16934371106130858653noreply@blogger.com0