Abstract:

Chaos theory is a scientific discipline which is based on the study of nonlinear systems. The terms complexity theory and complex systems theory describe the theory more adequately, however, chaos theory is more widely accepted. The system looks random at first, it will retain its shape and space, thus displaying order. This gives researchers a way to investigate the way a system changes its behavior in response to a change in the parameters describing the system and its environment.

People must be warned that such realism is in the eye of the beholder who is viewing the picture from a fixed human scale. What might appear realistic would not be so if its scale where enlarged accordingly. In principle, there is really no need for rules of beauty if one is guided by his own deepest feelings. While the classical Euclidean geometry deals only with objects which exist in integer dimensions fractal geometry works with objects in not-integer dimensions, known as fractal dimensions. The former is a description of lines, ellipses, circles, etc., the latter is described in algorithms, or a set of instructions on how to create a fractal. Fractals reveal self-similarity no matter how deeply you look into the forms. The use of computer simulations is one reason this field of research has been realized only in the past (20) years.

This computations are vast and computers make it easier, also they can show detailed pictographs of the form and growth of fractals. The view now about the shape and form of cities is that their irregularity and messiness is simply a superficial manifestation of a deeper chaos. New ways of visualizing the impact of human decision-making on cities and perhaps most of all, new goals for achieving the good society through manipulating and planning city form.