This paper reconsiders the evolution of the growth of American cities since 1790 in light of new theories of urban growth. Our null hypothesis for long-term growth is random growth. We obtain evidence supporting random growth against the alternative of mean reversion (convergence) in city sizes...

Urban transformation projects are prepared with the purpose to sanitize decayed areas, to make cities beautiful and to create economic vitality. Since natural hazards threaten large metropolitan areas, urban transformation is pronounced together to mitigate disasters. This approach of urban...

This paper analyses the determinants of growth of American cities, understood as growth of the population or of per capita income, from 1990 to 2000. This empirical analysis uses data from all cities with more than 25,000 inhabitants in the year 2000 (1154 cities). The results show that while a...

Uncontrolled and sprawling growth in physical space is one of the primary problems of metropolitan cities. Urban sprawl, which can be defined as the rapid peripheral growth of cities, is criticized in terms of leading problems such as occupying cultivated areas and environment, removing away...

We analyse the impacts that infrastructure provision has on long run urban development. The topic is of major importance to policy-makers when deciding whether or not to invest in major infrastructure projects. The analysis helps policy-makers to understand the intended, and potentially...

Based on the increasing popularity and dispersal of the concept of the 2000 watt society the paper analyses what defines the concept and what kind of implications it has including the challenges in regards to urban planning and economics. The literature analysis has shown that a sufficient...

This paper aims to study the effect of a major historical event on the Spanish city size distribution, the Spanish Reconquista. This was a long military campaign that aimed to expel Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. The process started in the early 1200s and ended around 1500, when the entire...

Today more than half of the 7 billion inhabitants of the planet live in urban areas, with this share expected to keep rising. Whereas in developed countries urbanisation has been a long and slow process, in developing countries this process is now characterised by a really fast pace and a high...

In today's cities of Turkey, central as well as local urban administrations cannot succeed in attaining the power for planning the developmental trends and/or controlling the future along with bringing solutions to socio-cultural and economic problems. The root cause for this issue lies in the...