Most cities, regardless of their size, have much more in common with each other than some rival towns would like to think, according to research by two SFI scientists described in a Sydney Morning Herald article.
While city fathers often boast about the unique characteristics of their hometowns, research by SFI Distinguished Professor Geoffrey West and External Professor Luis Bettencourt that compared cities in Europe, China, Japan, and Latin America found that measures of a city’s character typically deviate by only about 15 percent from other cities, and a given city's specialness is often determined by a natural feature or architectural style.
Their findings are published in Nature.
According to West, knowing the size of a city provides an abundance of information about its need for energy and resources, much like knowing the size of a mammal helps biologists understand a lot about its physiology and life history.
Read the Sydney Morning Herald article (July 23, 2011)
Read the Nature paper (October 20, 2010)