Biological perspectives of urban retrogression performance

From apoptosis to neoteny

Abstract

Biological characterization of urban phenomena, especially evolution theory, has been applied increasingly to urban planning during the last century. Now new trials must be conducted to introduce retrogression theory for declining urban areas to realize a sustainable future. This paper presents eight novel viewpoints to characterize the performance of retrogression phenomena: apoptosis, diet, simplification, atavism, mimicry, screening, triage, and neoteny. Among them, apoptosis means cell death that is programmed beforehand. Neoteny means maturation from infancy that proceeds to the next evolutionary step. Achieving an evolutionarily stable region (ESR) based on inter-regional coordination is indispensable for realizing sustainability.