Integrating Thermodynamics And Kinetics Of Urban Systems For Regional Studies

Abstract

The use of monitoring techniques and the construction of maps are used in an attempt to transfer the knowledge acquired through data collection and numeric calculations towards a concrete approach, finalized in the comprehension and management of real territorial systems. How can human activity be monitored? How are flows of energy and material conveyed within the territory? How much of the flows that feed human activities in a region come from outside of the local system and from the global market? How are they arranged in space and with what intensity? How do spatial patterns of activity develop over time, and what direction is the system evolving in? The response to this type of investigation could offer a key for the interpretation of various regional systems and to detect their thermodynamic and kinetic profile. For instance, the conformation and disposition of intensively active systems within a region can be studied through the observation of the dynamics that they are involved in and that they generate and are represented through spatial patterns on a cartographic basis.