Publications

Published project papers

• Lobo, José, Luís Bettencourt and Scott G Ortman (2024) Urban scaling theory: Answers to frequent questions. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 0(0):23998083241308418.
• Ortman, Scott G., Jose Lobo and Michael E Smith (2024) Urban allometries in archaeology: the social reactors project. In Urban Scaling: Allometry in Urban Studies and Spatial Science, edited by L. S. D'Acci, pp. 126-133. 1st ed. Routledge, London.
• Ortman, S. G., J. Lobo, L. Lodwick, R. Wiseman, O. Bulik, V. Harbison and L. M. A. Bettencourt (2024) Identification and measurement of intensive economic growth in a Roman imperial province. Science Advances 10(27):eadk5517.
• Ortman, Scott G. (2023) Settlement Scaling Analysis as Social Network Analysis. In The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Network Research, edited by T. Brughmans, B. J. Mills, J. Munson and M. A. Peeples, pp. 593-607. Oxford University Press.
• Ortman, Scott and John Hanson (2023). Estimating the ‘Missing’ Houses of Silchester. Britannia 54:167-187.
• Cooper, Z. J. (2023). Economies of Scale in Agricultural Production Among Post-Contact and Prehispanic Northern Rio Grande Pueblos. Human Ecology. doi:10.1007/s10745-023-00451-8.
• Ortman, Scott, Olivia Bulik, Rob Wiseman, José Lobo, Luis Bettencourt and Lisa Lodwick (2023) Transport Costs and Economic Change in Roman Britain. European Journal of Archaeology:1-24.
• Hanson, J. W. (2023). Relating Scale and Heterogeneity: Residuals, Scale-Adjusted Metropolitan Indicators, and Roman Cities — or, How Do We Assess Heterogeneity When Cities Are Different Sizes? Journal of Urban Archaeology, 8, 147-163.
• Hanson, John W. (2023). Scaling in Pompeii: Preliminary Evidence for the Occurrence of Scaling Phenomena Within an Ancient Built Environment. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.
• Ortman, Scott G., Laura L. Scheiber, and Zachary Cooper (2022). Scaling analysis of prehistoric Wyoming camp sites—implications for hunter-gatherer social dynamics. In Intra-Site Spatial Analysis of Mobile and Semisedentary Peoples: Analytical approaches to reconstructing occupation history, edited by Amy E. Clark and Joseph A.M. Gingerich, pp. 109-122. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
• Lobo, José, Todd Whitelaw, Luís M. A. Bettencourt, Polly Wiessner, Michael E. Smith and Scott Ortman (2022), 'Scaling of Hunter-Gatherer Camp Size and Human Sociality,' Current Anthropology.
• Altaweel, M., J. Hanson, and A. Squitieri (2021), 'The structure, centrality, and scale of urban street networks: Cases from Pre-Industrial Afro-Eurasia', PLOS ONE, 16 (11), e0259680.
• Ortman, Scott and Cooper, Zachary (2021), 'Artifact density and population density in settlement pattern research', Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 39, 103189.
• Klassen, Sarah, et al. (2021), 'Provisioning an Early City: Spatial Equilibrium in the Agricultural Economy at Angkor, Cambodia', Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.
• Ortman SG, Lobo J, Smith ME (2020) Cities: Complexity, theory and history. PLoS ONE 15(12): e0243621.
• Smith, Michael E., Scott G. Ortman, José Lobo, Claire Ebert, Amy E. Thompson, Keith M Prufer, Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo, and Robert M. Rosenswig (2020). The Low-Density Urban Systems of the Classic Period Maya and Izapa: Insights from Settlement Scaling Theory. Latin American Antiquity doi:10.1017/laq.2020.80.
• Ortman, Scott G., Michael E. Smith, José Lobo, Luís M. A. Bettencourt (2020) Why Archaeology is Necessary for a Theory of Urbanization. Journal of Urban Archaeology 1(1):151-167.
• Ortman, Scott G. and José Lobo (2020). Smithian Growth in a Non-Industrial Society. Science Advances 6: eaba5694.
• Hanson, John W. and Scott G. Ortman (2020). Reassessing the capacities of entertainment structures in the Roman Empire. American Journal of Archaeology 124(3):417-440.
• Rudolf Cesaretti, José Lobo, Luis M. A. Bettencourt & Michael E. Smith (2020): Increasing returns to scale in the towns of early Tudor England, Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History.
• Hanson, John W. (2020). Using city gates as a means of estimating ancient traffic flows. PLoS ONE 15(2): e0229580.
• Lobo, José, Luís M. A. Bettencourt, Michael E. Smith and Scott G. Ortman (2020). Settlement Scaling Theory: Bridging the Study of Ancient and Contemporary Urban Systems. Urban Studies.
• Ortman, Scott G. (2019). A New Kind of Relevance for Archaeology. Frontiers in Digital Humanities 6(16).
• Smith, Michael E. (2019). Energized Crowding and the Generative Role of Settlement Aggregation and Urbanization. In Coming Together: Comparative Approaches to Population Aggregation and Early Urbanization, edited by Attila Gyucha, pp. 37-58. State University of New York Press, Albany.
• Smith, Michael E. and José Lobo (2019). Cities through the Ages: One Thing or Many? Frontiers in Digital Humanities, 6 (Special issue: Where to Cities Come From and Where are They Going to? Modelling Past and Present Agglomerations to Understand Urban Ways of Life): Article 12.
• Hanson, John W., Scott G. Ortman, Luis M. A. Bettencourt, and Liam C. Mazur (2019). Urban form, infrastructure, and spatial organization in the Roman Empire. Antiquity 93(368):702-718.
• Ortman, Scott G. and Kaitlyn E. Davis (2019). Economic Growth in the Pueblos? In Re-Framing the Northern Rio Grande Pueblo Economy, edited by Scott G. Ortman, pp. 1-16. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona 80, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
• Ortman, Scott G. and Grant D. Coffey (2019). The Network Effects of Northern Rio Grande Pueblo Rituals. In Re-Framing the Northern Rio Grande Pueblo Economy, edited by Scott G. Ortman, pp. 75-85.  Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona 80, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
• Bettencourt, Luís M. A. and José Lobo (2019). Quantitative Methods for the Comparative Analysis of Cities in History. Frontiers in Digital Humanities 6(17).
• Ossa, Alanna, Michael E. Smith, and José Lobo (2017). The Size of Plazas in Mesoamerican Cities: A Quantitative Analysis and Social Interpretation. Latin American Antiquity 28(4): 457-475.
• Hanson, John W. and Scott G. Ortman (2017). A systematic method for estimating the populations of Greek and Roman settlements. Journal of Roman Archaeology 30:301-324.
• Ortman, Scott G. and Grant D. Coffey (2017). Settlement Scaling in Middle Range Societies. American Antiquity 82(4):662-682.
• Hanson, John W., Scott G. Ortman, and Jose Lobo (2017). Urbanisation and the division of labour in the Roman Empire. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 14(136):1-12.
• Cesaretti, Rudolf, Jose Lobo, Luis M. A. Bettencourt, Scott G. Ortman and Michael Smith (2016). Population-Area Relationship in Medieval European Cities. PLOS ONE 11(10): e0162678.
• Ortman, Scott G., Kaitlyn E. Davis, Jose Lobo, Michael E. Smith, Luis M. A. Bettencourt, and Aaron Trumbo (2016). Settlement Scaling and Economic Change in the Central Andes. Journal of Archaeological Science 73(2016):94-106.
• Ortman, Scott G., Andrew H. F. Cabaniss, Jennie O. Sturm and Luis M. A. Bettencourt (2015). Settlement Scaling and Increasing Returns in an Ancient Society. Science Advances 1e00066.
• Ortman, Scott G., Andrew H. F. Cabaniss, Jennie O. Sturm and Luis M. A. Bettencourt (2014). The Pre-History of Urban Scaling. PLOS ONE 9(2): e87902.

Preprints of papers in progress are available here. 

Related papers (including some key critical discussions)

• Burghardt, Keith, Johannes H Uhl, Kristina Lerman and Stefan Leyk (2024) Analyzing urban scaling laws in the United States over 115 years. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 0(0):23998083241240099.
• Li, Xiaomeng and Zachary P. Neal (2023) Are larger cities more central in urban networks: A meta-analysis. Global Networks n/a(n/a):e12467.
• Strumsky, Deborah, Luis Bettencourt and José Lobo (2023). Agglomeration effects as spatially embedded social interactions: identifying urban scaling beyond metropolitan areas. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 0(0):23998083221148198.
• Kemp, Jordan T. and Luís M. A. Bettencourt (2022),  Statistical dynamics of wealth inequality in stochastic models of growth. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications:128180.
• Lei, Weiqian, Jiao, Limin, and Xu, Gang (2022), 'Understanding the urban scaling of urban land with an internal structure view to characterize China’s urbanization', Land Use Policy, 112, 105781.
• Stier, Andrew J., et al. (2022) Reply to Huth et al.: Cities are defined by their spatially aggregated socioeconomic networks. PNAS 119(2):e2119313118.
• Sugar, Lorraine and Kennedy, Chris (2021), 'Urban Scaling and the Benefits of Living in Cities', Sustainable Cities and Society, 66, 102617.
• Stier, Andrew J., et al. (2021) Evidence and theory for lower rates of depression in larger US urban areas. PNAS 118(31):e2022472118.
• Stier, Andrew J., Marc G. Berman and Luís M. A. Bettencourt (2021) Early pandemic COVID-19 case growth rates increase with city size. Urban Sustainability 1(1):31.
• Somwrita, S., et al. (2020). "Evidence for localization and urbanization economies in urban scaling." Royal Society Open Science 7: 191638.
• Bettencourt, L.M.A., Zünd, D. (2020) Demography and the emergence of universal patterns in urban systems. Nat Commun 11, 4584.
• Bettencourt, Luis M. A. (2020) Urban growth and the emergent statistics of cities. Science Advances 6(34):eaat8812.
• Hamilton MJ, Walker RS, Buchanan B, Sandeford DS (2020) Scaling human sociopolitical complexity. PLoS ONE 15(7): e0234615.
• Keuschnigg, M., et al. (2019). "Urban scaling and the regional divide." Science Advances 5(1): eaav0042.
• Strumsky, Deborah, Jose Lobo and Charlotta Mellander (2019) As different as night and day: Scaling analysis of Swedish urban areas and regional labor markets. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 48(2):231-247.
• Sandeford David S. (2018) Organizational complexity and demographic scale in primary states. R. Soc. open sci.5171137.
• Bettencourt LMA, Yang VC, Lobo J, Kempes CP, Rybski D, Hamilton MJ. (2020). The interpretation of urban scaling analysis in time. J. R. Soc. Interface 17: 20190846.
• Bettencourt, LMA (2019). Towards a statistical mechanics of cities. Comptes Rendus Physique 20(4):308-318.
• Brelsford, Christa, Taylor Martin, Joe Hand and Luis M. A. Bettencourt (2018). Toward cities without slums: Topology and the spatial evolution of neighborhoods. Science Advances 4(8):eaar4644.
• Altaweel, Mark and Alessio Palmisano (2018). Urban and Transport Scaling: Northern Mesopotamia in the Late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. J. Archaeological Method and Theory 15 Oct 2018.
• Hamilton, Marcus J., Briggs Buchanan and Robert S. Walker (2018). Scaling the size, structure, and dynamics of residentially mobile hunter-gatherer camps. American Antiquity 83(4):701-720.
• Despersin, Jules and Marc Barthelemy (2018) From global scaling to the dynamics of individual cities. PNAS 115(10):2317-2322.
• Cottineau, Clementine, Erez Hatna, Elsa Arcaute, and Michael Batty (2017). Diverse cities or the systematic paradox of Urban Scaling Laws. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 63:80-94.
• Brelsford, Christa, José Lobo, Joe Hand and Luís M. A. Bettencourt (2017). Heterogeneity and scale of sustainable development in cities. PNAS 114(34):8963-8968.
• Bettencourt, Luis M. A. and Jose Lobo (2016) Urban Scaling in Europe. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 13(116).
• Haas, W. Randall, Jr., Cynthia J. Klink, Greg J. Maggard, Mark S. Aldenderfer (2015). Settlement Size Scaling among Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems in the New World. PLOS ONE 10(11):30140127.
• Arcaute, Elsa, Erez Hatna, Peter Ferguson, Hyejin Youn, Anders Johansson and Michael Batty (2015). Constructing cities, deconstructing scaling laws. J. R. Soc. Interface 12: 20140745.
• Bettencourt, Luis M. A. (2014) Impact of Changing Technology on the Evolution of Complex Informational Networks. Proceedings of the IEEE 102(12):1878-1891.
• Schläpfer, Markus, Luis M. A. Bettencourt, Sebastian Grauwin, Mathias Raschke, Rob Claxton, Zbigniew Smoreda, Geoffrey B. West and Carlo Ratti (2014) The Scaling of Human Interactions with City Size. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 11:20130789.
• Bettencourt, Luis M. A., Horacio Samaniego and HyeJin Youn (2014) Professional Diversity and the Productivity of Cities. Scientific Reports 4:5393.  DOI: 5310.1038/srep05393.
• Bettencourt, Luis M. A. (2013) The Origins of Scaling in Cities. Science 340:1438-1441.
• Fragkias, Michail, José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky, Karen Seto (2013) Does Size Matter? Scaling of CO2 Emissions and U.S. Urban Area.  PLoS ONE 8(6): e64727.
• Lobo José, Bettencourt, Luis M.A, Strumsky, Deborah, West, Geoffrey (2013) Urban Scaling and the Production Function for Cities. PLoS ONE 8(3): e58407.
• Bettencourt, Luis, José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky and Geoffrey West (2010) Urban Scaling and Its Deviations: Revealing the Structure of Wealth, Innovation and Crime across Cities. PLoS ONE 5(11): e13541.
• Bettencourt, Luis, José Lobo and Geoffrey West (2008) Why are large cities faster? Universal scaling and self-similarity in urban organization and dynamics. European Physical Journal B, 63: 285-293.
• Lobo, José and Deborah Strumsky (2008) Metropolitan patenting, inventor agglomeration and social networks: A tale of two effects. Journal of Urban Economics, 63: 871-884.
• Bettencourt, Luis, José Lobo, Dirk Helbing, Christian Kühnert and Geoffrey West (2007) Growth, innovation, scaling and the pace of life in cities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104, 7301-7306.
• Hamilton, Marcus J., Bruce T. Milne, Robert S. Walker, and James H. Brown (2007). Nonlinear scaling of space use in human hunter-gatherers. PNAS 104(11):4765-4769.
• Bettencourt, Luis, José Lobo and Deborah Strumsky (2007) Invention in the city: increasing returns to patenting as a scaling function of metropolitan size. Research Policy, 36: 107-120.