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  • © 2009

Mathematical Analysis of Urban Spatial Networks

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems (UCS)

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XIII
  2. Complex Networks of Urban Environments

    • Philippe Blanchard, Dimitri Volchenkov
    Pages 1-54
  3. Wayfinding and Affine Representations of Urban Environments

    • Philippe Blanchard, Dimitri Volchenkov
    Pages 55-100
  4. Exploring Community Structure by Diffusion Processes

    • Philippe Blanchard, Dimitri Volchenkov
    Pages 101-136
  5. Spectral Analysis of Directed Graphs and Interacting Networks

    • Philippe Blanchard, Dimitri Volchenkov
    Pages 137-150
  6. Urban Area Networks and Beyond

    • Philippe Blanchard, Dimitri Volchenkov
    Pages 151-157
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 159-181

About this book

Cities can be considered to be among the largest and most complex artificial networks created by human beings. Due to the numerous and diverse human-driven activities, urban network topology and dynamics can differ quite substantially from that of natural networks and so call for an alternative method of analysis.

The intent of the present monograph is to lay down the theoretical foundations for studying the topology of compact urban patterns, using methods from spectral graph theory and statistical physics. These methods are demonstrated as tools to investigate the structure of a number of real cities with widely differing properties: medieval German cities, the webs of city canals in Amsterdam and Venice, and a modern urban structure such as found in Manhattan.

Last but not least, the book concludes by providing a brief overview of possible applications that will eventually lead to a useful body of knowledge for architects, urban planners and civil engineers.

Reviews

From the reviews:

“Focuses particularly on the applied aspects of complexity sciences, including the social, economic, behavioural and cognitive. … the results of each technique are clearly explained … and it would be possible to read the book for the relevance and impact of each method without getting stuck on the details of the formulae. … appear primarily to address an existing community of complexity scientists, graph theorists, and statistical physicists. In this, it does an excellent job … providing a valuable domain of application for this community.” (Sean Hanna, The Journal of Space Syntax, Vol. 2 (1), 2011)

Authors and Affiliations

  • University Bielefeld and Research Center BiBoS, Bielefeld-Bonn-Stochastics Universitätsstr. 25, Germany

    Philippe Blanchard, Dimitri Volchenkov

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access