Colleagues may be interested in two publications relevant to mass gatherings, regeneration and the Olympics – first the current issue of Architectural Design featuring a cast of thousands from the Bartlett and second an article in The Lancet that generalise pedestrian style models to epidemics spreading with a prototype model for central London – written by Anders Johansson and me and others which references the Hajj, Notting Hill Carnival and so on
I blogged them on SIMULACA Blog at
http://simulacra.blogs.casa.ucl.ac.uk/2012/01/london-regeneration-ad-architectural-design/
and
http://simulacra.blogs.casa.ucl.ac.uk/2012/01/simulating-the-spread-of-infectious-diseases-in-large-cities/
Mike
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London (Re)generation AD: Architectural Design
The Bartlett’s Michael Batty, Matthew Carmona, Edward Denison, Murray Fraser, Matthew Gandy, and Hilary Powell all feature in current issue of Architectural Design, a lively, thought-provoking exploration of the contemporary regeneration of London, edited by David Littlefield.
http://www.architectural-design-magazine.com/details/book/1391079/London-Regeneration-AD-Architectural-Design.html
Plans to regenerate East Londonand transform the capital are integral to the vision of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This issue brings into focus notions of regeneration within the specific context of London: what does the term actually mean, how has it been applied and is it being applied? Historical overviews of large-scale interventions from the past are combined with case studies of new and planned schemes, and explorations of how change and rejuvenation can retain or enhance the city’s unique sense of place and identity. Looking beyond the Games, the various contributions will look at the direction in which regeneration is going in a post-recession economy. How can a long-established, highly protected and even cherished city, like London, continue to renew and expand? Unlike Chinese or Middle Eastern cities, London is constrained by a wide range of factors from heritage protection and geography to finance and democratic accountability; yet the city continues to grow, change and develop, either incrementally or through big, dramatic leaps, like the Olympic Park and King’s Cross. In this way,London provides a fascinating case study of how a developed, Western city can negotiate and greet the pressures for change.
Simulating the Spread of Infectious Diseases in Large Cities
Anders Johansson, Mike Batty and colleagues’ paper in The Lancet Infectious Diseases is published online today. There they are exploring how models for simulating crowds can be extended to deal with the spread of infectious diseases in high density environments.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/onlinefirst
Details of the paper follow:
The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Early Online Publication, 16 January 2012
doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(11)70287-0Cite or Link Using DOI
Crowd and environmental management during mass gatherings
Dr Anders Johansson PhD a b , Prof Michael Batty PhD a, Konrad Hayashi MD c, Osama Al Bar PhD d, David Marcozzi MD e, Prof Ziad A Memish MD f g
Crowds are a feature of large cities, occurring not only at mass gatherings but also at routine events such as the journey to work. To address extreme crowding, various computer models for crowd movement have been developed in the past decade, and we review these and show how they can be used to identify health and safety issues. State-of-the-art models that simulate the spread of epidemics operate on a population level, but the collection of fine-scale data might enable the development of models for epidemics that operate on a microscopic scale, similar to models for crowd movement. We provide an example of such simulations, showing how an individual-based crowd model can mirror aggregate susceptible—infected—recovered models that have been the main models for epidemics so far.
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Michael Batty
Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA)
University College London (UCL)
90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TJ, UK
Tel 44 (0) 20 3108 3877 Mobile 44 (0) 7768 423 656
http://www.complexcity.info
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