Urban systems are complex systems, mainly because of the non-linear growth processes that lead to very unequal concentration of population and activities in towns and cities over historical time. We have seen in Chapters~7 and~8 of this book that supralinear scaling relationships were a distinctive feature of the structure and dynamics of urban systems. At the end of Chapter~8, we have shown a few examples of trajectories of the weight of individual cities relative to the system they form. These trajectories show inflexions, or even reversals in trend, alternating periods of urban growth and prosperity in cities when an innovation cycle is located there and (at least relative) decline and impoverishment when a former specialization cannot be so successful or even maintained in some urban locations. Because their sustainability depends mainly on the result of their interactions with other places, cities are permanently submitted to the necessity of transforming themselves to improve their position in the system of cities.
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Pumain, D., Sanders, L., Bretagnolle, A., Glisse, B., Mathian, H. (2009). The Future of Urban Systems: Exploratory Models. In: Lane, D., Pumain, D., van der Leeuw, S.E., West, G. (eds) Complexity Perspectives in Innovation and Social Change. Methodos Series, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9663-1_13
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