Currently, the anthropogenic use of space keeps on increasing. This growth results into increased density and urban sprawl. Fueled by global trading networks, which provide certain types of energy and material, Occident human societies are locked into a sphere distinct from the natural environment. While the majority of studies want to improve urban design in order to optimize their own organization, few researches are focused on the city's interactions with the surrounding environment. Indeed, at a time when sustainable development seems to be a win-win solution, others claim the impossibility of unlimited growth in a limited world. Thus, urban metabolism cause inequalities with resources. Better upstream management, ie supply, is encouraged. The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of the natural interactions between the needs of a city and the available resources by taking as an example an ant colony. Three sub-objectives outline the methodology; to model the growth of the ant colony in equilibrium under internal (need) and external (source availability) perturbations (1), model this behavior (2) and to simulate the growth analogy of the biological model with a model of an anthropic organization (3). Laboratory experiments with Linepithema humile are carried out. A growth model of an anthropogenic agglomeration according to needs and the availability of energy and materials is simulated in order to obtain a balance with the environment. With the intention of supporting the analogy of the results found in L. humile, the effect of disturbances on the development of the city is analyzed. Finally, some parameters influencing the evolution of the city growth are compared in order to evaluate their importance.
For the first part, the data proves that ants know how to fill their own needs in a precise way and adopt a response’s flexibility against internal and external conditions. While the need of each ant may not be equal, foragers have the ability to make a collective decision regarding the amount of resources necessary. Also, when a source of good quality is offered after a lower quality, they are able to change the collective choice towards the best source. Concerning the last part, those concepts of flexibility, faced with the needs and the variability of sources found in ants, are applied in the city’s model. Simulation data showed that the city can respond to variations without deploying space utilization imbalances. Also, the results suggest that increasing the consideration of the relationship between available resources versus the cost deployed to build new construction is profitable and can adapt the growth more efficiently. This city’s model encourages deployment of new types of resources present and promotes the importance of the environment’s state in human decisions. Among the results provided by this study, the analogy application has served as an example of ecosystem approach and motivates to innovate.
| Date | 7 Aug 2018 |
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| Original language | French |
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| Awarding Institution | - École de technologie supérieure
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| Supervisor | Mathias Glaus (Supervisor) |
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Lévesque, T. (Author),
Glaus (Supervisor),
7 Aug 2018Student thesis: Master's thesis › Master in Engineering: Environmental Engineering