Scaling of urban properties for Philippine cities

Abstract

Cities are complex systems where much of the population is clustered, making them the main drivers of economic growth and innovation in human society. A number of studies have looked at cities by its components, but a single predictive theory to understand the overall dynamics and organization or urban growth is still lacking due to the complexity and interrelationships of the processes involved. In this work, we present the empirical scaling relations of several variables describing Philippine cities, in order to understand how urban variables relate to the city scale variables. Comparisons with similar approaches using data from cities from other countries reveal that the Philippine cities show different scaling trends. The results of the study may prove to be a useful first step in a quantitative approach to urban growth, particularly in the local setting, with the aim of aiding the development of useful policy measures for sustainable development.