Handbook on Entropy, Complexity and Spatial Dynamics: A Rebirth of Theory?

This ground-breaking Handbook presents a state-of-the-art exploration of entropy, complexity, and spatial dynamics from fundamental theoretical, empirical and methodological perspectives. It considers how foundational theories can contribute to new advances, including novel modeling and empirical insights at different sectoral, spatial, and temporal scales. With the help of leading experts worldwide, the Handbook examines how and to what extent entropic and non-entropic forces and processes in complex spatial socio-economic systems shape and are shaped by their structure and dynamics. Moreover, considering current concerns that big data and related data-driven methods may signal an end to theory, this Handbook is intended to investigate the potential and possibilities for complexity science to engage, revitalize, and advance theory in spatial economics. Overall, this Handbook reaches beyond qualitative generalizations, contributing to the identification of fundamental structural and dynamic properties of the complex space-economy. Drawing upon diverse foundations and perspectives, the Handbook on Entropy, Complexity and Spatial Dynamics: A Rebirth of Theory? will be an essential resource for researchers and students of many fields and disciplines, including economics, urban planning and geography, regional science, information science, physics, and biology.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface xii 1 Reflections on entropy, complexity and spatial dynamics: the rebirth of theory? 1 Aura Reggiani, Laurie A. Schintler, Daniel Czamanski and Roberto Patuelli PART A ENTROPY, SPACE AND COMPLEXITY 2 Entropy in urban and regional modelling 20 Alan Wilson 3 Recent applications of entropy in social and environmental sciences 32 Kingsley E. Haynes, Fred Phillips and Miko Ching-Ying Yu 4 Entropy and complexity in urban and regional systems 46 J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. 5 Information theory of spatial network ensembles 61 Ginestra Bianconi 6 Entropy as a measure of agglomeration 97 Katarzyna Kopczewska 7 Entropy, agglomeration and economic structures in spatial analysis 118 Eleonora Cutrini 8 Spatial entropy, information and complexity 139 Michael Batty PART B COMPLEXITY OF URBAN EVOLUTION 9 Self-organization in complex urban systems 159 Brian J. L. Berry 10 Two centre-size distributions compared 165 John B. Parr 11 Spatial dynamics of complex urban systems within an evolutionary theory frame 175 Juste Raimbault and Denise Pumain 12 Integrating entropy in the topodynamic approach and the urban metric system 195 Luc-Normand Tellier 13 Gibrat’s law and the change in artificial land use within and between European cities 213 Paul Kilgarriff, Rémi Lemoy and Geoffrey Caruso 14 Endogenous growth policies for lagging cities and regions 234 Dani Broitman and Daniel Czamanski 15 Thom’s catastrophe theory and Turing’s morphogenesis for urban growth modelling 246 Olivier Bonin PART C COMPLEXITY AND RESILIENCE OF ECONOMIC SYSTEMS 16 Complex structures and relative invariance in economic dynamics 271 Roberto Scazzieri 17 Getting to a circular growth economy by harnessing circular and cumulative causation 287 Kieran P. Donaghy 18 Simple pricing rules in complex air transport systems 304 Marco Alderighi, Christophe Feder, Peter Nijkamp and Elena Irina Ungureanu 19 Complex tourism dynamics and fiscal sustainability 321 Akash Sedai and Francesca Medda 20 Industrial districts as the outcome of self-organisation in time and space 342 Oto Hudec, Vladimír Gazda, Martin Zoričák and Denis Horváth 21 Economic resilience and extensions to complexity, entropy and spatial dynamics 363 Adam Rose and Noah Dormady 22 An analysis of resilience in complex socioeconomic systems 383 Amitrajeet A. Batabyal and Karima Kourtit 23 Complexity, resilience and emergence in regional economic systems 400 Timothy F. Slaper and C. Scott Dempwolf 24 Resilience in complex networks 418 Alan T. Murray PART D SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF COMPLEX INTERACTIONS 25 Complex network analysis of socio-ecological systems 433 Andrea De Montis 26 Hierarchy, central place theory and computational modelling 454 John Östh, Aura Reggiani and Laurie A. Schintler 27 Comparing power laws and exponentials in simulations of gravitational growth 474 Diego Rybski and Yunfei Li 28 Heterogeneity and segregation of mobility patterns 486 Enrico Ubaldi, Bernardo Monechi, Claudio Chiappetta and Vittorio Loreto 29 Conceptual and operational models of complex spatial interaction 510 Tomaz Ponce Dentinho and António Felix Rodrigues 30 Decision-based modelling of complex spatial systems 538 Guenter Haag 31 A general model of dynamic spatial interactions 566 Justin Delloye and Isabelle Thomas Index 584

About the Author :
Edited by Aura Reggiani, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Bologna, Italy, Laurie A. Schintler, Center for Regional Analysis, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, US, Daniel Czamanski, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ruppin Academic Center, Israel and Roberto Patuelli, Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Italy

Review :
‘This book poses a critical question: Is entropy the universal principle to understand and model spatial economic systems, to get grip on the complexity of our modern, highly connected economy? We need proper theory to claim so. Building on seminal work from the past the authors take the audacious and rewarding effort to develop the theory and show its value in practice. If closed systems exhibit increasing order over time, an essential theoretical question is whether dynamic, networked, open systems have more order, lower entropy and higher resilience. As the book discusses, despite big data and advanced computational tooling, this is not necessarily the case. The authors help us to see why.’