Jerry Adler examines the emerging field of “quantitative urbanism,” which aims to use mathematical formulas to unveil and explain the universal properties shared by cities.
"Cities are particular: You would never mistake a favela in Rio de Janeiro for downtown Los Angeles. They are shaped by their histories and accidents of geography and climate," says Adler. "But cities are also, at a deep level, universal: the products of social, economic and physical principles that transcend space and time. A new science—so new it doesn’t have its own journal, or even an agreed-upon name—is exploring these laws. We will call it 'quantitative urbanism.' It’s an effort to reduce to mathematical formulas the chaotic, exuberant, extravagant nature of one of humanity’s oldest and most important inventions, the city."
“Give me the size of a city in the United States and I can tell you how many police it has, how many patents, how many AIDS cases,” says [Geoffrey West, one of the leaders in the field], “just as you can calculate the life span of a mammal from its body mass.”
FULL STORY: Life in the City Is Essentially One Giant Math Problem

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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Gallatin County Department of Planning & Community Development
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont