Beyond Optimal City Size

Gobardhan Banskota

Nepal Engineering College

Centre for Postgraduate Studies(nec-CPS)

MSc in Transportation Engineering and Management

Planning Studio 04/15/231

An Evaluation of Alternative Urban Growth Patterns

Presentation Outline

Introduction: Definition: Abstract: Evaluation System: Conclusion:

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Introduction

Research by Roberta Capello and Roberto Camagni Paper first received, January 1999; final form,

August 1999 Size of optimal city: one single size or infinite sizes The model is applied to 58 Italian cities.

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Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present a critical view of theoretical works on city size.

Begins with the consideration that, during the 1960s and 1970s, the question of optimal city size tended to be expressed in a misleading way.

The real issue is not ‘optimal city size’ but ‘efficient size’

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Abstract contd…

depends on the functional characteristics of the city and on the spatial organisation within the urban

will vary from city to city, from society to society to identify the main theories which replace the limits of the

neoclassical approach

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*neoclassical=focusing on the determination of prices, outputs, and income distributions in markets through supply and demand

Major issues

The debate on ‘optimal’ city size: one single size or infinite sizes?

> Since the 1960s, urban economists and geographers focused on the problem of the optimal city size

> The optimal condition for the entire population of the system, urban and not urban, is reached when urban marginal costs equal marginal benefits (to size increase).

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*

The determinants of urban size

1. Traditional approaches

2. Unconventional approaches

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1.Traditional approaches

Indivisibilities and productivity Environmental costs and social conflicts Collection of facilitates for social interaction Urban diversity as source of creativity

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2. Unconventional approaches

Urban functions and urban ranks

City networks

Urban form and laying

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Things to remember

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Purpose/function

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Evaluation

Rational formula is widely used to evaluate The Measurement of the City Effect and the Urban Overload

The results have regard to the size elasticity of the city effect and the urban overload, calculated in three circumstances:

I. for different levels of urban size;

II. for different types of function;

III. for different levels of network integration.

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