Revisiting the Optimal City Size argument

Revisiting the Optimal City Size argument

Dissertation 2015

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Pratham Pincha, PP0007013 │ Masters in Planning │ Dissertation 2015 │ FP, CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Guided by – Prof. Shivanand Swamy

He is considerably dependent on others for his material/physical & emotional needs

So he lives in Organized groups for his sustenance

Human is a Social Animal

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These self sufficient groups reside over a space to form

settlements

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It has other 3 dimensions that defines the group

z

yx

I. Demography

• The number of people that form this group

II. Spatial Size

• The expanse of the space they cover

III. Functions

• Activities performed

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Costs & Benefits03-02-2015 5

To name a few:

Chanakya Plato Aristotle

Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Aristotle

74th CAA

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Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Chanakya

On his ideas of town & countryplanning – decongestion oftowns & setting up of newtowns

03-02-2015 7Source - Town and Country planning in Arthashastra composed by Chanakya in the Maurya period


Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Plato

In his book The Republic wantedhis republic to be small

Need of expansion – desire ofwealth & luxury – evil

Ideal state population = 504003-02-2015 8Source - Plato in The Republic, In book 2, just before he talks about the characteristics of guardians


Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Aristotle

In his book Politics – had amoderate stand

03-02-2015 9Source - Aristotle, in book 7, chapter 4 Politics


Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Aristotle

Increase in number of persons – beyond alimit – affects interrelation between then &the city03-02-2015 10Source - Aristotle, in book 7, chapter 4 Politics


Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Aristotle

The Human in a much larger physical extents like bigcities can develop affinity and sense of belongingonly for smaller physical extents & people

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Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Aristotle

The Human in a much larger physical extents like bigcities can develop affinity and sense of belongingonly for smaller physical extents & people

Lower limit :self-sufficiency

Upper limit :people’s ability toknow one another

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Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Aristotle

To know the officials without personallyknowing them is ‘haphazard’

“….the largest number which sufficesfor the purposes of life, and can be

taken in at a single view”

03-02-2015 13Source - Aristotle, in book 7, chapter 4 Politics


Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Ebenezer Howard

Limits population in each garden city to32,000.Though no empirical evidence was given

Modern Planning example of the Gardencity concept

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Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

74th CAA

For Efficient Governance

Better Voice to citizens

Accountability of authority directly to citizens

Realizes the need for smaller decentralized unitscalled Area Sabha – legitimate units

Footprint of a polling station

03-02-2015 15Source - Ramanathan Ramesh, Federalism, Urban Decentralisation and Citizen Participation, 2007, Economic & Political weekly


Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Capello

Alonso

Advantages of agglomeration in city

Vs the location cost

City size

Agglomeration economies

03-02-2015 16Source - Capello Roberta, Urban Growth: Is It a Never Ending Story?


Ebenezer Howard

74th CAA Capello

AlonsoGeoffrey

WestHenderson

Geoffrey West

In his work – Growth, innovation, scaling &pace of life in cities

Interestingly metamorphosed cities withliving organisms over the concept ofEconomies of scale , Pace of life &Productivity

03-02-2015 17Source - West Geoffrey, Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities, PNAS, (2007)

The stated works realizes the

significance of scalability on

various spheres of Human

Habitat such as

Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

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Like Aristotle stated the impact of population largely on the social quotient of the settlement.

With increase in city size & population, the share of ‘direct relationships’ between people decreases and ‘indirect relationships’ increases.

Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

Is social quotient a function of City size?

What does the human mental & physical limits

renders to the scalability issues of the city?

How city size can be viewed as a solution tosocial problems of safety over other solution of

architecture, planning and law & order?

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

Increase in city size leads to centralization

centralization leads to complexities

And complexities leads to inefficiencies

How?

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

Suppose A & B are some necessaryfunctions of a settlement

Now as settlement size increases & centralization starts to happen

A B

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

A B

This makes way for several subsidiary or

supporting functions to emerge

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

A B

for e.g. If working at a workplace is one of the necessary function, as city increases, subsidiary functions emerge, to enable the

primary functions.

Mass transit network

Eating joints to serve its commuter

Security arrangements and so on03-02-2015 24

Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

• So with the increase in the settlement sizedoes the complexity increases and the

problems too?

• If yes, what is the cost that we bear for

mitigating those additional problems?

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

Realizing the significance of scalability -74th CAA carved way for decentralization

??? problems to identify strategies of govt.interventions that can effectively influencethe city size.

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

Efforts were made to fragment the large

urban agglomeration into smaller unitsfor better management & administration.

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

information levels

Otherwise formation of huge centralizedpyramids leads to adulteration ininformation transfer at various levels due tothe presence of human element, therebymaking the system slow & less efficient.

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

Also since the civil officials can haveaffinity & sensitivity only for a particularnumber of people and area, centralization

beyond a limit leads to unrealisticsolutions.

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

• The questions that arise from this are whatare those appropriate levels ofdecentralization for most efficient governance

practices?

• Does it provide much louder voice to thecitizens of the city to participate in the issues

of governance?

• And catalyse their participation in the

development of society?

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Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

In the concept of economic agglomeration,Roberto Capello found out that the averagelocation benefit curve increases for higher orderfunctions & hence the optimal city size for thehigher order functions will be higher.

The economic functions characterising the city arean important determinant of the efficient city size.

City size

Agglomeration economies

f1 f2 f3


Social

Energy

Governance

Economic

In a regional economic situation there existroles/functions that each settlements play toform a hierarchical pattern over the space.

• Does there exist a regional model wherevarious settlements play different functions tomake a self-contained unit?

• What is the ideal size of that unit?

• Does this model answer to the disparityissues within the region?

• What is the threshold for diverting functionsand importance to other settlements?

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Research proposal

Aim:

To explore the concept of scalability alongside the well established OptimalCity Size argument for accessing its significance on the social, Economic,Environment & Institutional Quotient of Human Habitats.

Objectives:

1. To devise a framework for accessing cost & benefit of complexitiesarising out of Urban Growth.

2. To derive the significance of physical & mental limits of human onscalability of human habitats.

3. To formulate a framework to access the social cost due to increasingsettlement size.

4. To explore Scalability as a concept to answer the problems of intra-regional disparities.

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Literature Review

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Alonso posed the questions

‘how big is big enough?’ and

‘how big is too big?’

The main question was to identify whether increasing

returns to urban size exist?

The argument of Optimal City Size Theory

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City size

AverageLocation advantages

Due to externalities that stem from:

a) Consumptions and investments in

public services,

b) Large markets of outputs;

c) Large and diversified markets of

inputs

(Alonso 1971)

“Agglomeration economics”03-02-2015 36Source - Capello Roberta, Urban Growth: Is It a Never Ending Story?


City size

AverageLocation costs

Since:

Implementation of fixed capital infrastructure decrease while the

number of people using them

increases

“Agglomeration economics”03-02-2015 37

(Alonso 1971)

Source - Capello Roberta, Urban Growth: Is It a Never Ending Story?


City size

AverageLocation benefits

Due to:

Congestion,

High urban rents,

Environmental costs

“Agglomeration diseconomics”

Opposite mechanism

starts to work



City size

AverageLocation costs Average location costs

deceases & then increases,

diminishing the net

agglomeration advantage.

(Alonso 1971)“Agglomeration diseconomics”


“The size of the city for which the difference between location total costs and advantages is the size that

maximizes the net benefits, and for this reason it is

identified as the ‘optimal city size’”


(Capello 2011)


Capello explores the relationship between

Size of the city & its Functions

By SOUDY (supply oriented dynamic approach) model - Camagni et al. 1986

The argument against Optimal City Size Theory

Although large number of empirical evidences, there are many

criticisms of the neo classical approach to the optimal city size theory.



f1f2

f3

Say 3 settlements with

functions f1, f2 & f3.

• higher order functionsare characterised by

higher thresholds for the

level of appearance in the

city (in terms of urban

population)



The average location benefit

curve increases for higher

order functions, due to

a) growing entry barriers,

b) decreasing elasticity of

demand which allows

extra profits to be gained

in all market conditions,

c) increasing possibility of

obtaining monopolistic

revenues due to the use of

scarce, qualified factors.



So as said by Richardson:

‘we may expect the

efficient range of city

sizes to vary, possibly

dramatically, according to

the functions & the

structure of cities inquestion’ (Richardson 1972)⁶


The argument against Optimum City Size Theory

Other limitations of optimal city size theory include:

• Cities exist in interurban environment. The theory of optimal city size

does not consider the spatial context in which the

cities operate.

• In 1967, Chinitz expressed some doubts over the fact that urban

productivity is mainly dependent on the city size. He found out the

importance of diversified and competitive urban

production system on the urban productivity.

“In the time when the urbanization has been drastically affected by

urban growth, it has become a necessity to overcome the limits of

optimal size theory.” -Capello 2011


Geoffrey West – in his work Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities

interestingly metamorphosed cities with living organism in his

efforts for developing a predictive, quantitative theory of urban organization &sustainable development.

. Per capita, big city dwellers use

less energy than small town

dwellers

All the infrastructure costs behave in the similar manner


Cities & Scalability


All the socio economic quantities

The bigger we are the more we have per capita








The External Diseconomy Question

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Henderson in his work optimum city size: the external diseconomy question studies about

The mitigation of externalities due to increasing city size

&

Results of mitigation measures on the city size

Source - Henderson J. V., Optimum City Size, the External Diseconomy Question, 1972


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Market achieved city size >or< than optimum city size?


A popularly held idea is that, big cities are too large & optimum cities would be smaller

city

Why Non-Optimality?Externalities

Noise

Air pollution

Water pollution

congestion

₹

₹

₹ Tax

Reduction in city size

Externalities are priced to equate the social & private marginal cost


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The study shows that reduction in pollution due to taxation & shift towards consumption of non-polluting

goods will make city inhabitants better off.

This increased welfare of city inhabitants will result in immigration to the city


Questions about the significance of Scalability & City sizes have come timeand again, since ancient to modern times.

Though changing ideologies with change in time, people & place havemended the direction of research in various spheres of Human Habitats.

With the limited knowledge I’ve gained in this subject throughobservations, realizations, and readings it is almost my conviction that theimplication of Human scale (scalability) in settlements is to a considerableextent . And due to limitations of information & understanding, significanceof settlement size on the social quotient is less explored.

So I’d like to explore and contribute with a few more variables of social wellbeing adhering to the subject.

Way forward…

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References• ¹Town and Country planning in Arthashastra composed by Chanakya in the Maurya period• ²Plato in The Republic, In book 2, just before he talks about the characteristics of guardians• ³Aristotle, in book 7, chapter 4 Politics• ⁴Ramanathan Ramesh, Federalism, Urban Decentralisation and Citizen Participation, 2007,

Economic & Political weekly•

• ⁵From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia• ⁶Capello Roberta, Urban Growth: Is It a Never Ending Story?, Symphonya. Emerging Issues in

Management (www.unimib.it/symphonya), n. 1, 2011, pp. 19-28• ⁷West Geoffrey, Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities, PNAS, (2007), vol. 104,

no. 17, 7301-7306, www.pnas.org_cgi_doi_10.1073_pnas.0610172104• ⁸Bharthi Ravinthra, Optimal City Size, an enquiry in the cities of Tamil Nadu, theses, 1981, School of

Planning, CEPT University, Ahmedabad• ⁹Henderson J. V., Optimum City Size, the External Diseconomy Question, 1972, Queen’s University,

Discussion paper no. 91

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Revisiting the Optimal City Size argument

Education