Historical & Simulated Data

As the world has entered the ‘era of limits’, it is quintessential to prioritize and emphasize the importance of limits to growth. Principles of system thinking along with the system dynamics methodology help delve into the roots of complex system behavior to better predict them. A system is an interconnection of independent but inter-related parts where a positive change in one part of the system may prove to be calamitous for some other part and thereby for the system as a whole.  The generic system dynamics model in the paper validates that a strong predictor of city’s population growth is in-migration due to rise in the attractiveness of a city. The structure of the model has an underlying basis in the fundamental behavior of system archetype and follows the concept and behavior of Relative Control archetype. The paper suggests a caution against rising attractiveness of cities without any apprehension about the stress of population growth on city’s limited resources.