The Mathematical Foundations of the Science of Cities

Book · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70658-0_56-1· OSTI ID:1559686

Brelsford, Christa ^[1]; Martin, Taylor ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX

In this chapter, we describe graph-theoretic representations of infrastructure and social processes in urban environments and trace the development of these fields from the perspective of mathematics, social science, and urban planning. We follow the historical development of two different perspectives on cities and urban planning – one in which infrastructure and urban form is the primary focus and another which made people and social processes the primary focus. These perspectives can be traced through their application of concurrently developing mathematical techniques in graph theory, network science, and social network analysis. These different perspectives are now becoming integrated into a more mathematically grounded understanding of cities as coupled social and physical systems, in which the social life of a city shapes and defines the infrastructure that is built and a city’s infrastructure and physical form also shape the lives and communities of its residents.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1559686
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English