Criticality of Urban Networks: Untangling the Complexity of Urban Congestion

城市网络的重要性：解决城市拥堵的复杂性

• 批准号: 2311159
• 负责人: Jorge Laval
• 金额: $ 40.03万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2311159&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Criticality; Urban; Networks; Untangling; Complexity

This award will support research to explore the application of tools and methods from complexity science to better understand and control urban congestion. This paradigm-shifting approach is made in light of recent empirical data confirming earlier theories that the flow of traffic through urban transportation networks behaves like a fluid inside a container. In this analogy, rush-hour congestion can be thought of as the boiling point of the fluid, where one can observe two distinct states of matter coexisting in different proportions depending on the temperature: gas (little congestion) and liquid (stopped, stuck in traffic). This is where traffic flow becomes chaotic and therefore our traditional engineering tools such as calculus and statistics no longer apply to prediction and control. This research provides a framework for describing and modeling traffic flow systems in this context. The educational component of this project will promote and facilitate the incorporation of basic complex systems education into the civil engineering curricula at Georgia Tech.The theory of phase transitions is one of the better understood theories in physics, but it has not been applied to traffic flow successfully so far due to the lack of a suitable description of heat flow in the system. This project suggests the flow of vehicles as a correct interpretation, and the research approach includes the analysis of large amounts of empirical observations, together with mathematical modeling and theoretical analysis that will combine elements from traffic flow theory, statistical mechanics and fractal geometry within the overall framework of complexity science. Most relevant to this project will be the theory of self-organized criticality (SOC) and its connections with different universality classes such as Manna, Kardar-Parisi-Zhang and directed percolation classes, all of which have received much attention lately in the context of traffic networks. SOC has been found to be fundamental in diverse areas from geology to astrophysics, and this project will explore if urban networks fall in this category, along with the methodological implications for controlling urban congestion.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项将支持研究，以探讨复杂性科学的工具和方法的应用，以更好地理解和控制城市充血。鉴于最近的经验数据证实，通过城市运输网络的流量流动就像容器内的流体一样，这种范式转移方法是确定的。在这种类比中，可以将高峰时段的拥塞视为流体的沸点，在那里人们可以根据温度观察到的两个不同的物质状态，取决于温度：气体（小充血）和液体（停止，停在交通中）。在这里，交通流量变得混乱，因此我们的传统工程工具（例如微积分和统计数据）不再适用于预测和控制。这项研究提供了一个框架，用于在这种情况下描述和建模流量流系统。该项目的教育组成部分将促进和促进佐治亚技术的基本复杂系统教育纳入土木工程课程中。相换的理论是物理学中最了解的理论之一，但由于缺乏对系统中热流的适当描述，因此尚未成功地应用于交通流。该项目将车辆的流动作为正确的解释，研究方法包括对大量经验观察的分析，以及数学建模和理论分析，将交通流理理论，统计力学和分类几何学的元素结合在复杂性科学的整体框架内。与该项目最相关的是自组织批判性（SOC）的理论及其与不同的普遍性类别（如Manna，Kardar-Parisi-Zhang和指示渗透类别）的联系，最近在交通网络的背景下，所有这些都引起了很多关注。已经发现SOC在从地质到天体物理学的不同领域中至关重要，该项目将探索是否属于城市网络，以及对控制城市拥堵的方法学的影响。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被视为值得进行的支持。