Fig. 6: The concept of the metacity.
From: Conceptual frameworks facilitate integration for transdisciplinary urban science
A is the basic concept of metadynamics showing discrete but interacting patches at different scales (modified from Mihaljevic 2012). B–D illustrate metadynamics in Shanghai, China at increasing spatial scale from left to right. B shows a patch under construction in the urban core of Shanghai, which is intricately tied to integrated social-ecological systems. C shows the spatial distribution of vacant land within the urban core area of Shanghai in 2010, and the diverse types of vacant land generated from a variety of social-economic processes. D is the spatial distribution of urban growth from 1992 to 2010 in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) megaregion of which Shanghai is a part. These illustrations neglect the variety of material, human, and informational transboundary flows that actually exist across the different mosaics. Also not shown are the larger national and global mosaics or agglomerations of urban nodes and metacities with which Shanghai and the YRD interact.
