Complex Systems, Smart Territories and Mobility


Book Description

This book reflects the outcome of contribution by the plural community and of the interactions between disciplines. With the mass of data available through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in an unprecedented quantity since the Human History, it is now possible to access dimensions of knowledge that, though not hidden, could not be grasped in the same way in the past. The question of how this information can be used for the benefit of institutional and economic actors to foster the development of a territory. Tackling the issue from a resolutely interdisciplinary perspective, the authors explore the theories and methods of complex systems in order to discuss how they can contribute in these new circumstances to territorial intelligence and to the development practices in which it is embodied. This book illustrates how today’s research explores the multiple facets of territorial systems in order to reproduce their richness. It invites readers to learn about the challenges, ideas, results and advances present in this domain.




Urban Mobility Systems in the World


Book Description

Urban Mobility Systems in the World provides insight into the geographical organization of urban mobility systems around the world. These “systems” consist of infrastructure networks, existing transport services and people’s travel practices. Adopting a comparative approach, the book highlights the geographical diversity of mobility systems, based on case studies from Africa, North and South America, Asia and Europe. This multi-disciplinary book is organized into twelve chapters, divided into four parts. The first part gives an overview of urban mobility, and then examines the factors that determine everyday mobility in cities, revealing different travel practices among populations (poor, elderly and children). Parts 2 and 3, respectively, focus on urban public transport (trains, metros, minibuses) and active modes of transport (walking, cycling), and the related infrastructure policies. The final section examines the circulation of urban mobility analysis tools and public policy models




Stepping into Virtual Reality


Book Description

Virtual reality techniques are increasingly becoming indispensable in many areas. This book looks at how to generate advanced virtual reality worlds. It covers principles, techniques, devices and mathematical foundations, beginning with basic definitions, and then moving on to the latest results from current research and exploring the social implications of these. Very practical in its approach, the book is fully illustrated in colour and contains numerous examples, exercises and case studies. This textbook will allow students and practitioners alike to gain a practical understanding of virtual reality concepts, devices and possible applications.




Fractal Geometry in Human Geography and Planning


Book Description

The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the concepts and methods used in fractal analysis and modeling in order to study the spatial distribution of human settlements. The main concepts and mathematical tools are reviewed, and emphasis is placed on the practical benefits of their application and the pitfalls to be avoided when using them. The first part of the book is devoted to the basic concepts and geometric reference figures required for fractal analysis in human geography. In the second part, the principles of four major families of analysis methods are explained in detail: fractal analyses of point sequences, fractal methods for morphological delineation of urban agglomerations, multifractal analyses and cross scale signatures. The third part of the book is devoted to applications of fractal geometry in urban and regional planning.




Visual Analysis of Multilayer Networks


Book Description

This is an overview and structured analysis of contemporary multilayer network visualization. It surveys techniques as well as tools, tasks, and analytics from within application domains. It also identifies research opportunities and examines outstanding challenges along with potential solutions and future research directions for addressing them. Visual Analysis of Multilayer Networks is not only for visualization researchers, but for those who need to visualize multilayer networks in the domain of complex systems, as well as anyone solving problems within application domains. The emergence of multilayer networks as a concept from the field of complex systems provides many new opportunities for the visualization of network complexity, and has also raised many new exciting challenges. The multilayer network model recognizes that the complexity of relationships between entities in real-world systems is better embraced as several interdependent subsystems (or layers) rather than a simple graph approach. Despite only recently being formalized and defined, this model can be applied to problems in the domains of life sciences, sociology, digital humanities, and more. Within the domain of network visualization there already are many existing systems, which visualize data sets having many characteristics of multilayer networks, and many techniques, which are applicable to their visualization.




Trends in Sustainable Smart Cities and Territories


Book Description

This book presents the latest scientific and technical advances in the fields of Smart Cities and Smart Territories. It shows outcomes of 2nd Sustainable Smart Cities and Territories International Conference in Manizales (Colombia) on June 21–23, 2023. The concept of smart cities, which emerged in the early 2000s, attempts to solve these challenges by implementing information and communication technologies. The initial concept of smart cities focused on the modernization of megacities.




Handbook on Cities and Complexity


Book Description

Written by some of the founders of complexity theory and complexity theories of cities (CTC), this Handbook expertly guides the reader through over forty years of intertwined developments: the emergence of general theories of complex self-organized systems and the consequent emergence of CTC.




Smart Planning: Sustainability and Mobility in the Age of Change


Book Description

This book offers an overview of sustainability and urban mobility in the context of urban planning – topics that are of considerable interest in the development of smart cities. Environmental sustainability is universally recognized as a fundamental condition for any urban policy or urban management activity, while mobility is essential for the survival of complex urban systems. The new opportunities offered by innovations in the mobility of people, goods and information, as well as radically changing interactions and activities are transforming cities. Including contributions by urban planning scholars, the book provides an up-to-date picture of the latest studies and innovative policies and practices in Italy, of particular interest due to its spatial, functional and social peculiarities. Sustainability and mobility must form the basis of “smart planning” – a new dimension of urban planning linked to two main innovations: procedural innovation in the management of territorial transformations and the technological innovation of the generation, processing and distribution of data (big data) for the creation of new "digital environments" such as GIS, BIM, models of augmented and mixed reality, useful for describing changes in human settlement in real time.




E-Governance for Smart Cities


Book Description

This book highlights the electronic governance in a smart city through case studies of cities located in many countries. “E-Government” refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits are less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions. The book is divided into three parts. • E-Governance State of the Art Studies of many cities • E-Governance Domains Studies • E-Governance Tools and Issues




Complexity and Postmodernism


Book Description

In Complexity and Postmodernism, Paul Cilliers explores the idea of complexity in the light of contemporary perspectives from philosophy and science. Cilliers offers us a unique approach to understanding complexity and computational theory by integrating postmodern theory (like that of Derrida and Lyotard) into his discussion. Complexity and Postmodernism is an exciting and an original book that should be read by anyone interested in gaining a fresh understanding of complexity, postmodernism and connectionism.