Fractal Cities: A Geometry of Form and Function - Hardcover

Reseña del editor

This work is intended for research and professionals in geographical information systems (GIS), graphics, fractals and physical geography. This book presents an approach to measuring and simulating the form and function of cities integrating ideas from fractal geometry using computer graphics with conventional theories of urban structure. Fractal geometry and its applications has been a major area of growth in applied mathematics and computer graphics. The book will be heavily illustrated with 16 pages of colour plates, including photographs of computer generated fractals. Fractal Cities is a pioneering study of the development and use of fractal geometry for understanding and planning the physical form of cities, showing how this geometry enables cities to be simulated through computer graphics. It shows how cities evolve and grow in ways which at first sight appear irregular, but which, when understood in terms of fractals, illustrate an underlying order which reveals their complexity and diversity. The book contains sixteen pages of stunning computer graphics and explanations of how to construct them, as well as new insights into the complexity of social systems. The authors provide a gentle and intelligible introduction to fractal geometry as well as an exiting visual understanding of the form of cities, thus providing one of the best introductions to fractal geometry available for non-mathematicians and social scientists. Fractal Cities can be used as a text for courses on geographic information systems, urban geography, regional science and fractal geometry. Planners and architects will also find that there are many aspects of fractal geometry in this book relevant to their own interests. Furthermore, those involved in fractals and chaos, computer graphics, and systems theory will find important methods and examples that are germane to their work. Michael Batty is Director of the National Centre for Geographic Information and Analysis in the State University of New York at Buffalo, and has worked in planning theory and urban modelling. Paul Longley is lecturer in Geography at the University of Bristol, and is involved in the development of geographic information systems in urban policy analysis.