Generic Arcology System Model

One of the key characteristics of systems that grow by evolution rather than by design (such as cities), is a distinct lack fundamental policies and ``systems wide'' thinking to drive their design. Too often city components and services are created in a reactionary manner - for example, fire protection services are provided after too many buildings have burnt down, airports are built to serve cities after they have already grown too dense to accommodate one in a central location, tap water distribution systems are gutted out and replaced only after the old ones were too heavily loaded to be sanitary. A second problem is that too often new systems are developed without giving proper regard to their impact on the inhabitants and current infrastructure (e.g., congestion, environment). The central benefit of ``systems wide'' thinking for city/urban development is that it leads to methodologies that aim to identify and deal with cause-and-effect relationships among all system characteristics, early in the development life cycle where potential problems are easiest to mitigate.

With this backdrop in mind, this chapter describes a methodology for the specification of urban areas, highlighted by transportation network overlays that serve as a circulatory system. The result is a ``generic system model'' that separates development concerns. (e.g., system behavior is separated from system structure; system performance is assessed through measures of effectiveness).