ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the emergent field of urban complexity and demonstrates how a distinct yet transdisciplinary collection of theories have resulted in a growing research area. A research area that examines the urban as temporal processes of change with possibilities for self-organization, unpredictability, and human intervention. The chapter provides a historical perspective on the development of complexity theory. It examines past attempts to create a science of cities as systems. The chapter discusses that the urban is compatible with temporal, dynamic, and relational complexity concepts than other historical definitions of cities. It highlights the work of pioneers of urban complexity and locates contemporary concerns and theorists. The chapter provides information on the basic computational models used for simulation and potential limitations. It examines how the advent of Big Data and the Internet of Things can disrupt current research methods at the interface of complexity and urban studies. The chapter offers a definition of the urban from the view point of complexity science.
