ECONOMIC MEASUREMENT OF OPTIMAL CITY SIZE: THE CASE OF WEST SUMATRA, INDONESIA

This is an empirical study of economic measurement of the optimal size of seven cities in West Sumatra region, Indonesia. The empirical findings are quite interesting since the calculated optimal city size does not result in a single measure as mostly previous studies found, but they vary in accordance with the economic approaches used. The optimal city size measured by using the maximum profit approach would have been larger in size compared to those measured by the minimum cost and maximum net benefit approaches. Meanwhile, the cities measured by using the maximum net benefit have larger size than those of the minimum cost. Unlike previous studies, the measurement of optimal city size in this study is performed in terms of population density rather than the total population, in order to consider the influence of land area to the optimal city size. Moreover, by using the population density, the optimal city size becomes a relative index which enables us to compare it with the related size in other regions.

What is the quality of a city? Ways of thinking spaces that change

Understanding the effects of a metropolis' changes in scale - the rate of growth and its speed - rather than pursuing the search for optimal city size, is mandatory. The New Urban Agenda discussed performance dimensions of the contemporary city’s functioning mode, knowing that place quality derives from a mutual effect with the society that uses it. However, our research focuses on how city performance dimensions can be measured to establish the values of the metropolitan form that are capable of endowing metropolitan projects with meaning. The Metropolitan Paradigm of inter-scalar connection and the Metropolitan Architecture Project Hybrid Typology are the references to measure the metropolis’ performance. The Metropolitan Paradigm concerns the five city dimensions: physical, economic, energetic, social and governance. In particular, the aim of the paper is to study the physical metropolitan framework and its impact on the lives of metropolitan inhabitants, socio-economic flows and the meaning of the concept of "environment" today. The city is still analysed as a spatial phenomenon represented by data/quantities related to space. Nevertheless, the value of form plays a fundamental role within the Metropolitan Discipline at all scales, as spatial relationships within metropolitan settlements are increasingly not metric but relational. In conclusion, we study the connection between history and geography, environmental issues, the Metropolitan Structural Paradigm, and the new Public Realm heterogeneous elements to represent the metropolitan quality and living-related values that constitute the Metropolitan Democracy’s opportunity.

Are Chinese Cities Oversized?

In this article, the socioeconomic determinants on urban population in China are empirically investigated with a theoretical equilibrium model for city size. While much of the research on urban size focuses on the impact of agglomeration economies based on “optimal city size” theory, this model is eschewed in our research due to its theoretical paradox in the real world, and we turn instead toward an intermediate solution proposed by Camagni, Capello, and Caragliu. This equilibrium model is estimated on a sample of 111 prefectural cities in China with multiple regression and artificial neural networks. Empirical results have shown that the model explains the variance in the data very well, and all the determinants have significant impacts on Chinese city sizes. Although sample cities have reached their equilibrium sizes as a whole, there is substantially unbalanced distribution of population within the urban system, with a strong contingent of cities that are either squarely too large or too small.

Groups

Do ems physically concentrate in cities, or do they spread out more evenly across the land? Industrial economies today achieve large gains from clumping social and business activities closely together. The more easily that people can quickly travel to visit many different stores, employers, clubs, schools, etc., the more kinds of beneficial interactions become possible. The ability to interact via phones, email, and social media hasn’t reduced this effect; if anything the possibility of additional electronic interaction has usually increased the value of personal visits. Urban economists and other academics have long studied such “agglomeration” effects, and understand them in great detail. We should expect these gains from clumping to continue in an em world ( Morgan 2014 ). Ems want to be near one another, and near supporting tools and utilities, so that they could more easily and quickly interact with more such people and tools. This is especially important for fast ems, who can suffer noticeable communication delays with city scale separations. per person, cities today with twice the population tend to be 10% more economically productive per person. Compared with any given sized city, double-sized cities have per-person 21% more patents, 11% shorter roads, and 9% shorter electrical cables. But these cities also suffer 12% more crime, 17% more AIdS cases, and 34% more traffic congestion costs per person ( Bettencourt et al. 2007 , 2010 ; Schrank et al. 2011 ). Today, one factor increasing the productivity of larger cities is their selectively attracting better workers. But another important factor favoring big city productivity is their giving those better workers more ways to gain from their superior abilities. Optimal city size is in general a tradeoff between these gains and losses. During the farming era most people lived in small communities with populations of roughly 1000. Compared with any given sized village, only about 75% as many people lived in double-sized villages (Nitsch 2005). Thus most farmers lived in the smallest villages, because during the farmer era larger versions suffered higher costs of crime, disease, and transport.