CYBERNETIC ANALYSIS OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF URBAN SYSTEMS Available to Purchase

This paper presents very briefly a general model of the dynamics of urban systems. The behaviour of urban systems is characterized by varying magnitudes of in‐migration, overcrowding, slums, pollution, traffic congestion, crime, social tensions, public unrest, pressure on electric and water supply and inadequate facilities for education, medicine, transport and recreation. The inefficiency and ineffectiveness of urban governments appear as another pervasive feature. These behavioural aspects are, however, systemically interrelated. They emerge as an output of the cyclic interaction of a set of basic factors, Their abnormal values mark the pathological states of urban systems. The model presented here outlines the nature and pattern of interaction that engenders the varying modes of system behaviour.