Liveable Cities: A Conceptual Modeling Approach

What is the definition of a “liveable city”? Although the concept is not new and plenty of particular descriptions of liveable cities exist, a baseline and widely agreed-upon definition is still elusive. In addition, the recent introduction of the “big-data” era opened a plethora of exciting research avenues that, sometimes, seem to be only loosely grounded in solid urban theories. This chapter suggests a conceptual approach to the liveability of cities: liveable cities are places where people want to live and to which they choose to migrate. Following this suggested approach and drawing on the conclusions obtained using an endogenous growth model of an urban system, a basic theory of liveable cities is suggested. The endogenous urban growth model simulates several scenarios related to urban dynamics and policies, that consistently result in one of three dynamics for individual cities. In a nutshell, liveable cities are characterized by a steady population growth accompanied by a continuous improvement of the overall quality of living of its dwellers. The precondition for a liveable city is sustainable growth of the city’s “software” (products, services, technologies, norms, government, etc.) able to match, or surpass, the increasing demands of the city’s “hardware” (growing population and its associated housing and service needs). This condition allows the city to overcome the diseconomies of agglomeration. Only a few cities in a given urban system can become steadily liveable. Other cities are liveable at times, following successive cycles of growth and decadence, while a third group remains trapped in steady stagnant dynamics. The characterization of the three resulting urban dynamics through the lens of the joint development of the “hardware” and “software” offers a conceptual approach able to guide current and future empirical work based on big data and machine learning approaches.