A brief history
The ‘science of cities’ has a long history. The city was the market for von Thunen’s analysis of agriculture in the late 18th Century. There were many largely qualitative explorations in the first half of the 20th Century. However, cities are complex systems and the major opportunities for scientific development came with the beginnings of computer power in the 1950s. This coincided with major investment in highways in the United States and computer models were developed to predict both current transport patterns and the impacts of new highways. Plans could be evaluated and the formal methods of what became cost-benefit analysis were developed around that time. However, it was always recognised that transport and land use were interdependent and that a more comprehensive model was needed. There were several attempts to build such models but the one that stands out is I. S. (Jack) Lowry’s model of Pittsburgh which was published in 1964. This was elegant and (deceptively) simple – represented in just 12 algebraic equations and inequalities. Many contemporary models are richer in detail and have many more equations but most are Lowry-like in that they have a recognisably similar core structure.[1] Continue reading “3: Lowry and his legacy”
