Trade-offs between sustainable development goals in systems of cities

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goals are intrinsically competing, but their embedding into urban systems furthermore emphasises such compromises, due to spatial complexity, the non-optimal nature of such systems, and multi-objective aspects of their agents, among other reasons. We propose in this paper to use a stylised simulation model for systems of cities, focused on innovation diffusion and population dynamics, to show how trade-offs may operate at such a scale. We proceed in particular to a bi-objective optimisation of emissions and innovation utilities, and show that no single urban optimum exists, but a diversity of regimes forming a compromise between the two objectives.

10 pages, 3 figures