Strategic Network: Data and Cities as Complex Adaptive Systems (DACAS)

Urbanisation has been declared a planetary condition. Cities and urban processes have moved to the core of research agendas across several academic disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. New analytical frameworks and practical tools are needed to model, understand and manage urban transformations. Yet despite the increasing availability of urban (big) data and methods of analysis with the potential to allow an evidence-based understanding of socio-spatial change in different geographical contexts, current approaches fail to understand cities as complex adaptive systems. Although smart cities are seen as offering solutions to pressing global challenges, mainstream strategies do not yet offer an in-depth understanding of correlations and causalities between different urban systems and fail to address the links between 'soft' (economic, ecological and social) and 'hard' (engineered) systems. However, the ability to link and model different kinds of urban data and systems is indispensable for a holistic understanding of cities as complex adaptive systems and will be agenda-setting for future urban research and practice.
The proposed international Strategic Network Data and Cities as Complex Adaptive Systems (DACAS) aims to promote a decisively interdisciplinary approach to understanding urban processes and transformations through (big) urban data using a complexity science framework.
The Strategic Network has three objectives which are closely aligned with the Government's Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (a) smart cities and (b) development assistance strategies in the following ways:
(a) DACAS will bring together noted academics with backgrounds in the social and natural sciences, including architects, engineers, physicists, geographers, mathematicians and ecological economists. Network activities will clarify and calibrate common interdisciplinary terminology using a complexity science framework. Relevant urban systems data will be identified; data sources, structures and methods of acquisition will be compared and methods of data analysis will be tested through cross-case analysis of soft and hard urban data sets (Obj1). Network activities will establish if and how data can be used to link hard and soft urban systems. Modelling techniques will be compared and linked across disciplines and innovative protocols will be established to identify cause-effect relationships in large complex (urban) data sets (Obj2). Network activities will facilitate the development of practical tools and innovative technological applications to exploit (big) urban data, reflect urban complexity and aid urban policy-making and practice (Obj3).
(b) DACAS researchers will be based in Japan and the UK as well as Newton countries Brazil and China. Three events and one summer school (targeting specifically PhD and Early Career Researchers) will link academics with user communities from the public, private and third sectors. Two of these events will be hosted by our partners in Brazil and China.
In view of global environmental and economic crises where the pressures of urbanisation are expanding, DACAS has the potential to make a real impact in academic, policy and practice circles through multiple deliverables. Alongside academic papers produced by individual Network members, DACAS will publish a synthesis article in an internationally renowned journal. In addition to a dedicated website and a series of contributions to popular magazines and web blogs, DACAS will produce synthesis reports for researchers and practitioners and a UNU Policy Report/Policy Brief for policy makers. At the Manchester School of Architecture, students of Architecture will benefit directly from DACAS activities through the digital research-based MArch atelier Complexity, Planning and Urbanism (CPU). Funding proposals for interdisciplinary research will be developed to ensure continued DACAS activities post-award (e.g. RCUK, ERC H2020, Belmont Forum).

DACAS research and activities have the potential to benefit multiple stakeholders, including policy-makers, government and others within the public, private and third sectors who are involved in the design, planning and management of cities in the UK and internationally:
1. International think tanks and organisations who work on urban issues both within the United Nations system (e.g. UN-HABITAT, FAO, WHO, UNEP) as well as outside of it (e.g. ICLEI, LEDS-GP) will benefit from a better understanding of the potential that integrated data technologies may have to address global issues around climate change, urban health and governance.
2. By involving co-investigators and partners in two Newton countries (Brazil, China), DACAS activities and outputs will also support the UK Government Department for Business, Innovation & Skills by contributing to its development assistance strategy and the Newton Fund. The Fund aims to develop science and innovation partnerships that promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries. DACAS members in Brazil and China will benefit from the co-creation of knowledge and possibilities for commercialisation.
3. User communities in Brazil, such as urban planning authorities, NGOs and practitioners, will benefit from new knowledge and innovative technological applications which will help them address pressing issues. These include the development of integrated approaches to planning or resource distribution.
4. User communities in China, such as municipal planning authorities and professional societies, will benefit from new knowledge and innovative technological applications to address unprecedented rural-to-urban migration and rapid urbanisation.
5. DACAS will support the UK Government Department for Business, Innovation & Skills by contributing to its recently launched Smart Cities strategy and creating opportunities for research, development and commercialisation of data-driven approaches to urban planning and design. This will benefit the wider UK economy in creating opportunities for commercialisation of city-centred products and services in the UK and globally.
6. DACAS can help UK businesses to become more competitive and profitable both locally an internationally in helping to improve the business environment through evidence-based planning and construction of infrastructure. Improved speed and predictability of spatial and infrastructure planning will help the delivery of vital economic infrastructure and provide greater accessibility.
7. Professional institutions (such as the Royal Society of British Architects (RIBA) and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)) will gain new knowledge on the merits of new technologies and big data for design and planning processes and tangible evidence of data-based approaches and applications in urban praxis. This will support their efforts to influence government on related policies, such as the implementation of digitised planning system pilot schemes in the UK.
8. Local authorities will benefit from new knowledge and technology which can feed into informed decision making and integrated approaches to spatial planning across city regions. This is of particular significance with regards to overall strategies for the delivery of future housing, employment land and associated infrastructure.
9. Civil society in the UK and abroad will benefit from improved cities for citizens through better urban service provision, improved efficiency of public services as well as integrated city services.
10. PhD and Early Career Researchers across the social and natural sciences will benefit from capacity building activities, including exposure to and involvement in the development of cutting-edge interdisciplinary methods for the analysis of (big) urban data and multilayer networks.
11. Architecture students at the MSA will benefit from DACAS activities through the digital research-based MArch atelier Complexity, Planning and Urbanism.