In The New Science of Cities, Michael Batty suggests that tounderstand cities we must view them not simply as places in space but as systems of networks andflows. To understand space, he argues, we must understand flows, and to understand flows, we mustunderstand networks -- the relations between objects that comprise the system of the city. Drawingon the complexity sciences, social physics, urban economics, transportation theory, regionalscience, and urban geography, and building on his own previous work, Batty introduces theories andmethods that reveal the deep structure of how cities function.
Batty presents thefoundations of a new science of cities, defining flows and their networks and introducing tools thatcan be applied to understanding different aspects of city structure. He examines the size of cities,their internal order, the transport routes that define them, and the locations that fix thesenetworks. He introduces methods of simulation that range from simple stochastic models to bottom-upevolutionary models to aggregate land-use transportation models. Then, using largely the same tools,he presents design and decision-making models that predict interactions and flows in future cities.These networks emphasize a notion with relevance for future research and planning: that design ofcities is collective action.
