Luís Bettencourt
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 205339 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Luís Bettencourt |
| PRENOMES | Luís |
| SOBRENOME | Bettencourt |
| ASSINATURA | BETTENCOURT L |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Santa Fe Institute |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6176-5160 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 28 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 66 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 28 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2007 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Urban scaling theory
Since its start about 15 years ago, urban scaling research has become a vibrant component of the emerging field of urban science. Initially, this work focused on the identification of nonlinear relationships in urban quantities relative to population size, but more recently it has expanded to include efforts to explain observed scaling relationships in terms of new theory. We find that some misunderstandings have arisen in the literature concerni…
Using human mobility data to quantify experienced urban inequalities
Counterfactual mobility network embedding reveals prevalent accessibility gaps in U.S. cities
Living in cities affords expanded access to various resources, infrastructures, and services at reduced travel costs, which improves social life and promotes systemic gains. However, recent research shows that urban dwellers also experience inequality in accessing urban facilities, which manifests in distinct travel and visitation patterns for residents with different demographic backgrounds. Here, we go beyond simple flawed correlation analysis …
Agglomeration effects as spatially embedded social interactions
Agglomeration is the tell-tale sign of cities and urbanization. Identifying and measuring agglomeration economies has been achieved by a variety of means and by various disciplines, including urban economics, quantitative geography, and regional science. Agglomeration is typically expressed as the non-linear dependence of many different urban quantities on city size, proxied by population. The identification and measurement of agglomeration effec…
Transport Costs and Economic Change in Roman Britain
Reductions in the cost of transporting manufactured goods have been an important element in economic development in the recent past, and previous research suggests that the Roman period in Britain also saw substantial reductions in such costs. The authors investigate how far it is possible to measure changes in transport costs by considering the spatial distributions of pottery from known Roman production locations over time. Their analysis of an…
Infrastructure, enforcement, and Covid‐19 in Mumbai slums
This study is among the first to investigate whether patterns of access to basic services could explain the disproportionately severe impact of COVID‐19 in slums. Using geolocated containment zones and COVID‐19 case data for Mumbai, India's most populous city, we find that cases and case fatality rates are higher in slums compared with formal residential buildings. Our results show that access to toilets for men is associated with lower COVID‐19 …
Scaling of Hunter-Gatherer Camp Size and Human Sociality
One of the most common tendencies of human settlements is for larger settlements to display higher population densities. Work in urban science and archaeology suggests that this densification pattern reflects an emergent spatial equilibrium where individuals balance movement costs with social interaction benefits, leading to increases in aggregate productivity and social interdependence. The temporary camps created by hunters and gatherers exhibi…
Life between the city and the village
The emergence of India as an urbanized nation is one of the most significant socioeconomic and political processes of the 21st century. An essential feature of India’s urbanization has been the growth and persistence of slums in its fast-developing cities. Whether living conditions in Indian slums constitute a path to human development or a poverty trap to much of their population is therefore an issue of vital importance. Here, we analyse data f…
ChicagO Multiethnic Prevention and Surveillance Study (Compass)
Worldwide Detection of Informal Settlements via Topological Analysis of Crowdsourced Digital Maps
The recent growth of high-resolution spatial data, especially in developing urban environments, is enabling new approaches to civic activism, urban planning and the provision of services necessary for sustainable development. A special area of great potential and urgent need deals with urban expansion through informal settlements (slums). These neighborhoods are too often characterized by a lack of connections, both physical and socioeconomic, wi…
Why Archaeology Is Necessary for a Theory of Urbanization
In recent decades researchers in several disciplines have promoted ‘urban science’ to acknowledge the advantages of multidisciplinary approaches and the expanding ability to collect data for contemporary cities. Although practitioners tend to treat the city as the object of study, in our view the more appropriate focus is the process of urbanization. When framed this way, the archaeological record becomes central to a robust theory of urbanizatio…
Urban Science
Increasing returns to scale in the towns of early Tudor England
Urban agglomeration economies make cities central to theories of modern economic growth. There is historical evidence for the presence of Smithian growth and agglomeration effects in English towns c.1450-1670, but seminal assessments deny the presence of agglomeration effects and productivity gains to Early Modern English towns. This study evaluates the presence of increasing returns to scale (IRS) in aggregate urban economic outputs—the empirica…
Settlement scaling theory
A general explanatory framework for the social processes underpinning urbanisation should account for empirical regularities that are shared among contemporary urban systems and ancient settlement systems known throughout archaeology and history. The identification of such shared properties has been facilitated by research traditions in each field that define cities and settlements as areas that capture networks of social interaction embedded in …
Optimal reblocking as a practical tool for neighborhood development
Fast urbanization is a common feature of many developing human societies. In many cases, past and present, explosive population growth in cities outstrips the rate of provision of housing and urban services and leads to the formation of informal settlements or slums. Slums are extremely varied in terms of their histories, infrastructure, and rates of change, but they share certain common features: informal land use, lack of physical accesses, and…
Urban form, infrastructure and spatial organisation in the Roman Empire
Heterogeneity and scale of sustainable development in cities
Significance Most nations worldwide have recently committed to solving their most severe challenges of sustainability by 2030, including eradicating extreme poverty and providing universal access to basic services. But how? Rapid urbanization is creating the conditions for widespread economic growth and human development, but its consequences are very uneven. We show how measures of sustainable development—identified by residents of poor neighbor…
Urban scaling in Europe
Over the last few decades, in disciplines as diverse as economics, geography and complex systems, a perspective has arisen proposing that many properties of cities are quantitatively predictable due to agglomeration or scaling effects. Using new harmonized definitions for functional urban areas, we examine to what extent these ideas apply to European cities. We show that while most large urban systems in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Sp…
Settlement scaling and economic change in the Central Andes
There is a longstanding debate in anthropology and history regarding the extent to which the determinants of past economic change are similar in any specific ways to those that operate today. In this paper, we examine the extent to which increasing returns to settlement scale in material outputs, which are apparent in contemporary urban systems, also operated in the Late Pre-Hispanic Tarma and Mantaro drainages of the Peruvian Central Andes. Prox…
Settlement scaling and increasing returns in an ancient society
Ancient Mesoamerican settlements obey the same scaling laws as modern cities despite vast differences in economy, technology and political organization.
Industrial Ecology
The Pre-History of Urban Scaling
Cities are increasingly the fundamental socio-economic units of human societies worldwide, but we still lack a unified characterization of urbanization that captures the social processes realized by cities across time and space. This is especially important for understanding the role of cities in the history of human civilization and for determining whether studies of ancient cities are relevant for contemporary science and policy. As a step in t…
The Origins of Scaling in Cities
The Equations Underlying Cities Cities are complex systems of which functioning depends upon many social, economic, and environmental factors. Bettencourt (p. 1438 ; see the cover; see the Perspective by Batty ) developed a theory to explain the quantitative relationships observed between various aspects of cities and population size or land area.
Evolution and structure of sustainability science
The concepts of sustainable development have experienced extraordinary success since their advent in the 1980s. They are now an integral part of the agenda of governments and corporations, and their goals have become central to the mission of research laboratories and universities worldwide. However, it remains unclear how far the field has progressed as a scientific discipline, especially given its ambitious agenda of integrating theory, applied…
A unified theory of urban living
Settlement scaling theory
A general explanatory framework for the social processes underpinning urbanisation should account for empirical regularities that are shared among contemporary urban systems and ancient settlement systems known throughout archaeology and history. The identification of such shared properties has been facilitated by research traditions in each field that define cities and settlements as areas that capture networks of social interaction embedded in …
Settlement scaling and economic change in the Central Andes
There is a longstanding debate in anthropology and history regarding the extent to which the determinants of past economic change are similar in any specific ways to those that operate today. In this paper, we examine the extent to which increasing returns to settlement scale in material outputs, which are apparent in contemporary urban systems, also operated in the Late Pre-Hispanic Tarma and Mantaro drainages of the Peruvian Central Andes. Prox…
Scaling of Hunter-Gatherer Camp Size and Human Sociality
One of the most common tendencies of human settlements is for larger settlements to display higher population densities. Work in urban science and archaeology suggests that this densification pattern reflects an emergent spatial equilibrium where individuals balance movement costs with social interaction benefits, leading to increases in aggregate productivity and social interdependence. The temporary camps created by hunters and gatherers exhibi…
Urban form, infrastructure and spatial organisation in the Roman Empire
Life between the city and the village
The emergence of India as an urbanized nation is one of the most significant socioeconomic and political processes of the 21st century. An essential feature of India’s urbanization has been the growth and persistence of slums in its fast-developing cities. Whether living conditions in Indian slums constitute a path to human development or a poverty trap to much of their population is therefore an issue of vital importance. Here, we analyse data f…
Transport Costs and Economic Change in Roman Britain
Reductions in the cost of transporting manufactured goods have been an important element in economic development in the recent past, and previous research suggests that the Roman period in Britain also saw substantial reductions in such costs. The authors investigate how far it is possible to measure changes in transport costs by considering the spatial distributions of pottery from known Roman production locations over time. Their analysis of an…
Increasing returns to scale in the towns of early Tudor England
Urban agglomeration economies make cities central to theories of modern economic growth. There is historical evidence for the presence of Smithian growth and agglomeration effects in English towns c.1450-1670, but seminal assessments deny the presence of agglomeration effects and productivity gains to Early Modern English towns. This study evaluates the presence of increasing returns to scale (IRS) in aggregate urban economic outputs—the empirica…
Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities
Humanity has just crossed a major landmark in its history with the majority of people now living in cities. Cities have long been known to be society's predominant engine of innovation and wealth creation, yet they are also its main source of crime, pollution, and disease. The inexorable trend toward urbanization worldwide presents an urgent challenge for developing a predictive, quantitative theory of urban organization and sustainable developme…
Invention in the city
A unified theory of urban living
Urban Scaling and Its Deviations
With urban population increasing dramatically worldwide, cities are playing an increasingly critical role in human societies and the sustainability of the planet. An obstacle to effective policy is the lack of meaningful urban metrics based on a quantitative understanding of cities. Typically, linear per capita indicators are used to characterize and rank cities. However, these implicitly ignore the fundamental role of nonlinear agglomeration int…
Evolution and structure of sustainability science
The concepts of sustainable development have experienced extraordinary success since their advent in the 1980s. They are now an integral part of the agenda of governments and corporations, and their goals have become central to the mission of research laboratories and universities worldwide. However, it remains unclear how far the field has progressed as a scientific discipline, especially given its ambitious agenda of integrating theory, applied…
The Origins of Scaling in Cities
The Equations Underlying Cities Cities are complex systems of which functioning depends upon many social, economic, and environmental factors. Bettencourt (p. 1438 ; see the cover; see the Perspective by Batty ) developed a theory to explain the quantitative relationships observed between various aspects of cities and population size or land area.
The Pre-History of Urban Scaling
Cities are increasingly the fundamental socio-economic units of human societies worldwide, but we still lack a unified characterization of urbanization that captures the social processes realized by cities across time and space. This is especially important for understanding the role of cities in the history of human civilization and for determining whether studies of ancient cities are relevant for contemporary science and policy. As a step in t…
Settlement scaling and increasing returns in an ancient society
Ancient Mesoamerican settlements obey the same scaling laws as modern cities despite vast differences in economy, technology and political organization.
Industrial Ecology
Urban scaling in Europe
Over the last few decades, in disciplines as diverse as economics, geography and complex systems, a perspective has arisen proposing that many properties of cities are quantitatively predictable due to agglomeration or scaling effects. Using new harmonized definitions for functional urban areas, we examine to what extent these ideas apply to European cities. We show that while most large urban systems in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Sp…
Settlement scaling and economic change in the Central Andes
There is a longstanding debate in anthropology and history regarding the extent to which the determinants of past economic change are similar in any specific ways to those that operate today. In this paper, we examine the extent to which increasing returns to settlement scale in material outputs, which are apparent in contemporary urban systems, also operated in the Late Pre-Hispanic Tarma and Mantaro drainages of the Peruvian Central Andes. Prox…
Heterogeneity and scale of sustainable development in cities
Significance Most nations worldwide have recently committed to solving their most severe challenges of sustainability by 2030, including eradicating extreme poverty and providing universal access to basic services. But how? Rapid urbanization is creating the conditions for widespread economic growth and human development, but its consequences are very uneven. We show how measures of sustainable development—identified by residents of poor neighbor…
Optimal reblocking as a practical tool for neighborhood development
Fast urbanization is a common feature of many developing human societies. In many cases, past and present, explosive population growth in cities outstrips the rate of provision of housing and urban services and leads to the formation of informal settlements or slums. Slums are extremely varied in terms of their histories, infrastructure, and rates of change, but they share certain common features: informal land use, lack of physical accesses, and…
Urban form, infrastructure and spatial organisation in the Roman Empire
Worldwide Detection of Informal Settlements via Topological Analysis of Crowdsourced Digital Maps
The recent growth of high-resolution spatial data, especially in developing urban environments, is enabling new approaches to civic activism, urban planning and the provision of services necessary for sustainable development. A special area of great potential and urgent need deals with urban expansion through informal settlements (slums). These neighborhoods are too often characterized by a lack of connections, both physical and socioeconomic, wi…
Why Archaeology Is Necessary for a Theory of Urbanization
In recent decades researchers in several disciplines have promoted ‘urban science’ to acknowledge the advantages of multidisciplinary approaches and the expanding ability to collect data for contemporary cities. Although practitioners tend to treat the city as the object of study, in our view the more appropriate focus is the process of urbanization. When framed this way, the archaeological record becomes central to a robust theory of urbanizatio…
Urban Science
Increasing returns to scale in the towns of early Tudor England
Urban agglomeration economies make cities central to theories of modern economic growth. There is historical evidence for the presence of Smithian growth and agglomeration effects in English towns c.1450-1670, but seminal assessments deny the presence of agglomeration effects and productivity gains to Early Modern English towns. This study evaluates the presence of increasing returns to scale (IRS) in aggregate urban economic outputs—the empirica…
Settlement scaling theory
A general explanatory framework for the social processes underpinning urbanisation should account for empirical regularities that are shared among contemporary urban systems and ancient settlement systems known throughout archaeology and history. The identification of such shared properties has been facilitated by research traditions in each field that define cities and settlements as areas that capture networks of social interaction embedded in …
Life between the city and the village
The emergence of India as an urbanized nation is one of the most significant socioeconomic and political processes of the 21st century. An essential feature of India’s urbanization has been the growth and persistence of slums in its fast-developing cities. Whether living conditions in Indian slums constitute a path to human development or a poverty trap to much of their population is therefore an issue of vital importance. Here, we analyse data f…
ChicagO Multiethnic Prevention and Surveillance Study (Compass)
Infrastructure, enforcement, and Covid‐19 in Mumbai slums
This study is among the first to investigate whether patterns of access to basic services could explain the disproportionately severe impact of COVID‐19 in slums. Using geolocated containment zones and COVID‐19 case data for Mumbai, India's most populous city, we find that cases and case fatality rates are higher in slums compared with formal residential buildings. Our results show that access to toilets for men is associated with lower COVID‐19 …
Scaling of Hunter-Gatherer Camp Size and Human Sociality
One of the most common tendencies of human settlements is for larger settlements to display higher population densities. Work in urban science and archaeology suggests that this densification pattern reflects an emergent spatial equilibrium where individuals balance movement costs with social interaction benefits, leading to increases in aggregate productivity and social interdependence. The temporary camps created by hunters and gatherers exhibi…
Agglomeration effects as spatially embedded social interactions
Agglomeration is the tell-tale sign of cities and urbanization. Identifying and measuring agglomeration economies has been achieved by a variety of means and by various disciplines, including urban economics, quantitative geography, and regional science. Agglomeration is typically expressed as the non-linear dependence of many different urban quantities on city size, proxied by population. The identification and measurement of agglomeration effec…
Transport Costs and Economic Change in Roman Britain
Reductions in the cost of transporting manufactured goods have been an important element in economic development in the recent past, and previous research suggests that the Roman period in Britain also saw substantial reductions in such costs. The authors investigate how far it is possible to measure changes in transport costs by considering the spatial distributions of pottery from known Roman production locations over time. Their analysis of an…
Geography (23 obras) · Sociology (20 obras) · Economics (17 obras) · Economic geography (14 obras) · Economic growth (13 obras) · Population (12 obras) · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis (12 obras) · Urbanization (11 obras) · Demography (10 obras) · Human settlement (9 obras)