Cybernetics and Urban Systems Planning

Abstract

Cities are spaces in which political, economic and social organizations interact in different ways with their infrastructure, services and spaces. These elements make urban systems more complex and susceptible to the influence of several variables that can change their organization. Technology, fueled by a growing range of data, emerges as an inherent and emerging modifying factor in this system of conditions that are not always subject to control. Cybernetics studies provide directions for the systems control and communication, and their focus is centered on processing the acquired information and responding to these changes. Thus, this article seeks to offer a cybernetic perspective on the understanding of these complexity factors and how they can reveal paths to an open and self-organized urban planning, in which city systems can be more adaptable to the various transformations in a similar pace. The cybernetics proposal is to highlight a city with adaptive potential and that makes use of technology, not depending on the amount implemented, but on how to use it.