Spatial-temporal patterns of self-organization: A dynamic 4D model for redeveloping the post-zoning city

Time is the main axis for understanding the functional, economic, and social aspects of self-organized redevelopment. When such processes are intensive and are conducted contemporaneously by large numbers of urban agents on different spatial and temporal scales and as a result of different motivations, urban planning is fragmented into multiple simultaneous and unexpected projects. The post-zoning era in urban planning stemmed from a recognition of this kind of complexity of urban dynamics and the need for a flexible planning system. Web-based geographic information systems (GIS) and planning support systems (PSS) are employed widely as digital tools to support planning practices. Still, the solutions tend to be isolated implementations that do not achieve sophisticated management of the complex temporal-spatial urban dynamics of self-organization. To this end, the article presents a useful set of multidimensional (2D, 3D, and 4D) planning tools that can be implemented by municipal planning departments to improve planning practices with relative ease. This toolbox facilitates the real-time updating of changes to individual buildings and allows all parties to see where delays are occurring, where they are impacting one another, and where environments of accelerated development are evolving in nearby urban plots. Identifying redevelopment clusters enables the formulation of an urban time-based planning policy. Using a spatial-temporal toolbox for planning, we argue, can facilitate recognition of the potential of self-organization as the leading form of contemporary urban planning.

Download Full-text

An Approach to Determining the Spatially Contiguous Zone of a Self-Organized Urban Agglomeration

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11123490 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. 3490

Author(s):

Fei Liu ◽

Qing Huang

Keyword(s):

Urban Agglomeration ◽

Self Organization ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

Urban Dynamics ◽

Self Organized ◽

Spatial Features ◽

Spatial Range ◽

The One ◽

Selection Of ◽

Self Organizing

The evolution of the urban agglomeration is a significant development in urban geography. Determining its spatial range for effective measurement remains a challenge for researchers. In previous studies, determining spatial range has primarily been done through distinguishing the cities that should belong to urban agglomerations from among other cities by using various indicators. Both the selection of indicators and the standards used for calculation and identification have been based on subjective choices, and have not considered spatial distribution or morphology. The urban agglomeration can be regarded as a self-organized space, and spatial features of the fractal can be regarded as one of the morphological characterizations of spatial self-organization. From the perspective of the assumption that the space of urban agglomerations is molecule like assembled, and through the extraction and analysis of spatial fractals, we present an objective method to determine the “spatially contiguous zone” of urban agglomeration, particularly the spatial range in which the urban agglomeration is able to exercise jurisdiction within the radius of its capacity, rather than in the administrative division. Our method is applied in this paper to the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration and produced the following results: (1) the existence of spatial fractals and the theory of space unit molecule like self-organization or assembly in the morphology of urban agglomerations has been proved; and (2) a spatially contiguous zone could be identified for the urban agglomeration has been confirmed. Compared with previous methods used for determining space, this method is centered on the spatial morphology of urban agglomerations; the recognition of a spatially contiguous zone liberates the geographical limits of the result from city boundary restrictions. Concurrently, by considering the linkages within the city as a self-organizing black box, we can circumvent the one-sidedness involved with the selection of indicators that has biased previous studies, thereby avoiding having to focus on the specific mechanism of urban dynamics, and coming much closer to its self-organizing dynamic inner nature. This approach will prove to be a useful reference for the identification of spatial ranges in future studies.

Download Full-text

Guiding urban self-organization: Combining rule-based and case-based planning

Environment and Planning B Urban Analytics and City Science ◽

10.1177/2399808319893687 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 47 (2) ◽

pp. 304-320 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J Partanen

Keyword(s):

Coupled System ◽

Planning System ◽

Self Organization ◽

Case Based Reasoning ◽

Rule Based ◽

Urban Dynamics ◽

Mixed Use ◽

Planning Procedure ◽

Consistent Manner ◽

Case Based

In cities, positive self-organization, reflecting the preferred pattern formation resulting from dissipative decision making of activities, is a key promoter of urban dynamics. The urban planning system is limited in recognizing it, but planners adapt to these autonomous processes by deviating from the plan. The result is a dual system of rules and systematic exceptions, which lacks the ability to steer and evaluate the overall direction of urban progress. Similar yet explicit dual problem-solving procedures of statutory rule frameworks and adaptations applying previous cases are common in many fields. Applying this multi-disciplinary knowledge, I propose a dual, computation-supported planning procedure combining rule-based and case-based reasoning. Such planning could respond to urban self-organization, while guiding urban dynamics in a consistent manner. The operation of this coupled system is illustrated using the empirical example of Lielahti, a mixed-use working place district in the Finnish city of Tampere in an exploratory manner.

Download Full-text

Conclusions From Social Dynamics for Sustainable Educational Development

Advances in Educational Marketing, Administration, and Leadership - Marketing Initiatives for Sustainable Educational Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-5673-2.ch006 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 146-181

Author(s):

Gilbert Ahamer

Keyword(s):

Social Dynamics ◽

Team Work ◽

Self Organization ◽

Social Self ◽

Web Based ◽

Sustainable Solutions ◽

Self Organized ◽

The Social ◽

Self Study ◽

Self Interest

The social and didactic dynamics produced by the negotiation-oriented and partly web-based game “Surfing Global Change” (SGC) were analyzed by independent experts after their observations in advanced interdisciplinary university courses. It could be empirically demonstrated that the intended didactics of SGC were successful, namely that they were grounded on “active, self-organized learning,” training of “competence to act,” and on responsibility for both practicable and sustainable solutions for the society of the future. The design of SGC succeeds in equilibrating competition vs. consensus, self-study vs. team work, sharpening the self-interest vs. readiness to compromise, reductionism vs. holism, and hence, mirrors professional realities. The conclusion is made that the game's rules act as a boundary condition for expected processes of social self-organization. The independent expert's opinions express the importance of self-responsibility. Hence, self-organization in SGC allows for self-responsibility.

Download Full-text

Multi-Level Perspective on Sustainability Transition towards Nature-Based Solutions and Co-Creation in Urban Planning of Belgrade, Serbia

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13147576 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 7576

Author(s):

Ana Mitić-Radulović ◽

Ksenija Lalović

Keyword(s):

Urban Planning ◽

Urban Forest ◽

Case Study Research ◽

Eu Enlargement ◽

Planning System ◽

Future Research ◽

Horizon 2020 ◽

Research On Evaluation ◽

Private Interests ◽

Multi Level

In recent years, nature-based solutions have been increasingly promoted as a climate change adaptation instrument, strongly advocated to be co-created. Achieving clear, coherent, and ambitious urban greening strategies, embedded in urban planning and developed in a co-creative, participatory and inclusive manner, is highly challenging within the EU enlargement context. In this article, such challenges are studied through two recent urban development initiatives in Belgrade, the Capital of Serbia: the first initiative focuses on planning the new Linear Park, within the framework of the CLEVER Cities Horizon 2020 project; the second initiative envisages the transformation of the privatised Avala Film Complex in the Košutnjak Urban Forest, primarily led by private interests but supported by the local authorities. The multiple-case study research method is applied, with an exploratory purpose and as a basis for potential future research on evaluation of co-creation processes for NBS implementation. The theoretical basis of this article is founded in the research on sustainability transitions, focusing on multi-level perspective (MLP) framework. The urban planning system in Belgrade and Serbia is observed as a socio-technical regime of the MLP. In such framework, we recognize co-creative planning of the Linear Park as a niche innovation. We interpret opposition towards planning of the Avala Film Complex as escalation, or an extreme element of the socio-technical landscape, comprised of civic unrests and political tensions on one side, combined with the climate crisis and excessive pollution on the other side. Moreover, the article examines informal urban planning instruments that can be implemented by the practitioners of niche innovations, that could support urban planners and NBS advocates in the Serbian and EU enlargement contexts to face the challenges of motivating all stakeholders to proactively, constructively and appropriately engage in co-creation.

Download Full-text

Self-replication of a quantum artificial organism driven by single-photon pulses

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-96048-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Valente

Keyword(s):

Self Assembly ◽

Artificial Life ◽

Single Photon ◽

Self Organization ◽

Physical Systems ◽

Self Organized ◽

Living Organisms ◽

A Chain ◽

Thermodynamic Mechanism ◽

Self Replication

AbstractImitating the transition from inanimate to living matter is a longstanding challenge. Artificial life has achieved computer programs that self-replicate, mutate, compete and evolve, but lacks self-organized hardwares akin to the self-assembly of the first living cells. Nonequilibrium thermodynamics has achieved lifelike self-organization in diverse physical systems, but has not yet met the open-ended evolution of living organisms. Here, I look for the emergence of an artificial-life code in a nonequilibrium physical system undergoing self-organization. I devise a toy model where the onset of self-replication of a quantum artificial organism (a chain of lambda systems) is owing to single-photon pulses added to a zero-temperature environment. I find that spontaneous mutations during self-replication are unavoidable in this model, due to rare but finite absorption of off-resonant photons. I also show that the replication probability is proportional to the absorbed work from the photon, thereby fulfilling a dissipative adaptation (a thermodynamic mechanism underlying lifelike self-organization). These results hint at self-replication as the scenario where dissipative adaptation (pointing towards convergence) coexists with open-ended evolution (pointing towards divergence).

Download Full-text

Travelling colourful patterns in self-organized cellulose-based liquid crystalline structures

Communications Materials ◽

10.1038/s43246-021-00182-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Pedro E. S. Silva ◽

Ricardo Chagas ◽

Susete N. Fernandes ◽

Pawel Pieranski ◽

Robin L. B. Selinger ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Simple Model ◽

Temporal Variation ◽

Liquid Crystalline ◽

Diffusion Mechanism ◽

Reaction Diffusion ◽

Self Organization ◽

Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽

Living Matter ◽

Equilibrium Conditions ◽

Self Organized

AbstractCellulose-based systems are useful for many applications. However, the issue of self-organization under non-equilibrium conditions, which is ubiquitous in living matter, has scarcely been addressed in cellulose-based materials. Here, we show that quasi-2D preparations of a lyotropic cellulose-based cholesteric mesophase display travelling colourful patterns, which are generated by a chemical reaction-diffusion mechanism being simultaneous with the evaporation of solvents at the boundaries. These patterns involve spatial and temporal variation in the amplitude and sign of the helix´s pitch. We propose a simple model, based on a reaction-diffusion mechanism, which simulates the observed spatiotemporal colour behaviour.

Download Full-text

Self-Organized Criticality on Twitter: Phenomenological Theory and Empirical Investigation Based on Data Analysis Results

Complexity ◽

10.1155/2019/8750643 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. 1-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Andrey Dmitriev ◽

Victor Dmitriev ◽

Stepan Balybin

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Critical State ◽

Empirical Investigation ◽

Phenomenological Theory ◽

Self Organization ◽

Protest Movements ◽

Self Organized ◽

Self Organized Criticality ◽

Stochastic Sources ◽

Adiabatic Mode

Recently, there has been an increasing number of empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that spread of avalanches of microposts on social networks, such as Twitter, is associated with some sociopolitical events. Typical examples of such events are political elections and protest movements. Inspired by this phenomenon, we built a phenomenological model that describes Twitter’s self-organization in a critical state. An external manifestation of this condition is the spread of avalanches of microposts on the network. The model is based on a fractional three-parameter self-organization scheme with stochastic sources. It is shown that the adiabatic mode of self-organization in a critical state is determined by the intensive coordinated action of a relatively small number of network users. To identify the critical states of the network and to verify the model, we have proposed a spectrum of three scaling indicators of the observed time series of microposts.

Download Full-text

Determining asymptotically large population sizes in insect swarms

Journal of The Royal Society Interface ◽

10.1098/rsif.2014.0710 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (99) ◽

pp. 20140710 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

James G. Puckett ◽

Nicholas T. Ouellette

Keyword(s):

Group Dynamics ◽

Large Population ◽

Environmental Cues ◽

Multi Agent Systems ◽

Strong Constraint ◽

Agent Systems ◽

Self Organized ◽

Large Numbers ◽

Population Sizes ◽

Multi Agent

Social animals commonly form aggregates that exhibit emergent collective behaviour, with group dynamics that are distinct from the behaviour of individuals. Simple models can qualitatively reproduce such behaviour, but only with large numbers of individuals. But how rapidly do the collective properties of animal aggregations in nature emerge with group size? Here, we study swarms of Chironomus riparius midges and measure how their statistical properties change as a function of the number of participating individuals. Once the swarms contain order 10 individuals, we find that all statistics saturate and the swarms enter an asymptotic regime. The influence of environmental cues on the swarm morphology decays on a similar scale. Our results provide a strong constraint on how rapidly swarm models must produce collective states. But our findings support the feasibility of using swarms as a design template for multi-agent systems, because self-organized states are possible even with few agents.

Download Full-text