title: Scaling Laws in City Growth: Setting Limitations with Self-Organizing Maps.
abstract: Do scaling relations always provide the means to anticipate the relationships between the size of cities, costs of maintenance, and the socio-economic benefits resulting from their growth? Scaling laws are considered a universal principle that describes the development of complex systems such as cities. It seems that regardless of their location or history, the growth of cities is associated with the super-linear or sublinear scaling of features such as the amount of space required, infrastructure, or human activities. However, the results of our research, based on grouping by Self-Organizing Maps, reveal some limitations in the application of scaling laws: the trends of urban growth behave in a different manner when we consider both a large and diverse collection of cities and a subset of cities alike. This finding complements the existing body of knowledge on the growth of cities and allows for a more accurate prediction of their future.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Architecture, Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1733-8492
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cebrat
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sobczyński
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001686:Biological Phenomena; D002947:Cities / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005843:Geography / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D010829:Physiological Phenomena; D011156:Population Density; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*