Physics – Condensed Matter – Statistical Mechanics
Scientific paper
1998-05-13
Nature 388, 47-50 (1997)
Physics
Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
For related work see http://www.theo2.physik.uni-stuttgart.de/helbing.html
Scientific paper
Many human social phenomena, such as cooperation, the growth of settlements, traffic dynamics and pedestrian movement, appear to be accessible to mathematical descriptions that invoke self-organization. Here we develop a model of pedestrian motion to explore the evolution of trails in urban green spaces such as parks. Our aim is to address such questions as what the topological structures of these trail systems are, and whether optimal path systems can be predicted for urban planning. We use an `active walker' model that takes into account pedestrian motion and orientation and the concomitant feedbacks with the surrounding environment. Such models have previously been applied to the study of complex structure formation in physical chemical and biological systems. We find that our model is able to reporduce many of the observed large-scale spatial features of trail systems.
Helbing Dirk
Keltsch Joachim
Molnar Peter
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