Topological characterization of world cities

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the topological structure of world cities using complex network representations, revealing continent-specific patterns that enhance understanding of urban organization globally.

Contribution

It introduces a methodology to identify significant urban regions and compares city topologies across continents using multivariate analysis.

Findings

Cities from Anglo-Saxon America have distinct topological features.

Topological properties vary significantly across different continents.

The approach aids in understanding global urban organization.

Abstract

The topological organization of several world cities are studied according to respective representations by complex networks. As a first step, the city maps are processed by a recently developed methodology that allows the most significant urban region of each city to be identified. Then, we estimate many topological measures on the obtained networks, and apply multivariate statistics and data analysis methods to study and compare the topologies. Remarkably, the obtained results show that cities from specific continents, especially Anglo-Saxon America, tend to have particular topological properties. Such developments should contribute to better understanding how cities are organized and related to different geographical locations worldwide.