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Cross-Scale Dynamics Of A Regional Urban System Through Time

Author

Listed:
  • Tarsha EASON

    (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, USA)

  • Ahjond S. GARMESTANI

    (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, USA)

Abstract

Urban systems have been the subject of investigation for over a century. From central place and hierarchy theory to Gibrat’s and Zipf’s law, urban systems have been subjected to intense scrutiny. More recently, in a series of papers analyzing urban systems from the perspective of resilience and panarchy theory, urban systems have been characterized as scale-dependent. In this work, we examined the relationships between city size, growth rates, and the key factors that impact resilience and population dynamics in a regional urban system over time. Results of this work indicate that while there are similarities between cities, certain factors appear to be more important in one place than another, and that city growth is not random, but rather, correlated with key factors. In particular, we found that city growth was driven by mean household income and the percentage of the population of a city with a college degree.

Suggested Citation

  • Tarsha EASON & Ahjond S. GARMESTANI, 2012. "Cross-Scale Dynamics Of A Regional Urban System Through Time," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 36, pages 55-77.
    • Handle: RePEc:tou:journl:v:36:y:2012:p:55-77
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rafael González‐Val, 2010. "The Evolution Of U.S. City Size Distribution From A Long‐Term Perspective (1900–2000)," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 952-972, December.
    2. Boris Portnov & Ben Reiser & Moshe Schwartz, 2012. "Does Gibrat’s law for cities hold when location counts?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 48(1), pages 151-178, February.
    3. Luis Bettencourt & Geoffrey West, 2010. "A unified theory of urban living," Nature, Nature, vol. 467(7318), pages 912-913, October.
    4. Duncan Black & Vernon Henderson, 2003. "Urban evolution in the USA," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(4), pages 343-372, October.
    5. Rafael González-Val, 2011. "Deviations from Zipf’s Law for American Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(5), pages 1017-1035, April.
    6. Zengwang Xu & Robert Harriss, 2010. "A Spatial and Temporal Autocorrelated Growth Model for City Rank—Size Distribution," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(2), pages 321-335, February.
    7. George A. Erickcek & Hannah McKinney, 2004. "Small Cities Blues: Looking for Growth Factors in Small and Medium-Sized Cities," Upjohn Working Papers 04-100, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    8. García, Jorge H. & Garmestani, Ahjond S. & Karunanithi, Arunprakash T., 2011. "Threshold transitions in a regional urban system," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(1-2), pages 152-159, April.
    9. Rafael, González-Val, 2008. "Deviations from Zipf’s Law for American cities: an empirical examination," MPRA Paper 11504, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Natália Barbosa & Vasco Eiriz, 2011. "Regional Variation of Firm Size and Growth: The Portuguese Case," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 125-158, June.
    11. Anderson, Gordon & Ge, Ying, 2005. "The size distribution of Chinese cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 756-776, November.
    12. Garmestani, Ahjond S. & Allen, Craig R. & Gallagher, Colin M., 2008. "Power laws, discontinuities and regional city size distributions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 209-216, October.
    13. Edward L Glaeser & Jesse M Shapiro, 2003. "Urban Growth in the 1990s: Is City Living Back?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 139-165, February.
    14. Alexandra Schaffar & Michel Dimou, 2012. "Rank-size City Dynamics in China and India, 1981--2004," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(6), pages 707-721, August.
    15. Michel Dimou & Alexandra Schaffar, 2009. "Urban Hierarchies and City Growth in the Balkans," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(13), pages 2891-2906, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Trisha L Spanbauer & Craig R Allen & David G Angeler & Tarsha Eason & Sherilyn C Fritz & Ahjond S Garmestani & Kirsty L Nash & Jeffery R Stone, 2014. "Prolonged Instability Prior to a Regime Shift," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-7, October.
    2. Shana M. Sundstrom & David G. Angeler & Ahjond S. Garmestani & Jorge H. García & Craig R. Allen, 2014. "Transdisciplinary Application of Cross-Scale Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-24, October.
    3. Shade T. Shutters & Srinivasa S. Kandala & Fangwu Wei & Ann P. Kinzig, 2021. "Resilience of Urban Economic Structures Following the Great Recession," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-11, February.
    4. Aurélie Lalanne & Shana Sundstrom & Ahjond Garmestani, 2023. "Discontinuous structure of regional and subregional urban systems: Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France (1800–2015)," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(5), pages 869-884, April.
    5. Dustin L. Herrmann & William D. Shuster & Audrey L. Mayer & Ahjond S. Garmestani, 2016. "Sustainability for Shrinking Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-9, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    URBAN SYSTEMS; CROSS-SCALE RESILIENCE; GROWTH RATES; CITY SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS; INFORMATION THEORY;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • C02 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Mathematical Economics
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

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