ABSTRACT
Throughout this book an attempt has been made to consider the way that cities both operate at a point in time and how they naturally evolve over time. These are both critical issues to understand for anyone seeking to carry out either development activity within the urban landscape or planning for change of that landscape. It has hopefully become apparent that the shape of the urban landscape is generated by some quite understandable economic and social forces. It has been postulated that there are three main underlying drivers that influence the shape of the city; these operate at all scales; these and the tensions between these drivers represent the urban dynamics that affect the form of the super-structure of the city all the way down to the way that we design the inside of our homes. Following on from this, it has been set out that cities adapt according to the energy availability, expanding upwards and outwards when more energy is pumped into them. Cities are living systems, evolving their form according to their economic and environmental context and, critically, energy availability. And the manner in which they evolve has major implications for the quality of life and lifestyles that members of a city's population can access and lead.
