Abstract This paper examines several concepts and applications that influence city and urban development. The purpose is to explore the limits to city and urban growth. These urban expansions are reflected in the growth of Charleston SC and Portland OR through their changes in night light expression. These concepts include carrying capacity, growth or cordon boundaries, agglomeration, technological change and human ingenuity and innovation. A conclusion of this review is that history suggests that there is no strong evidence that urban growth can be limited either in scale or extent. Alternative urban futures are created with a no limits assumption due to the positive reinforcing effects of agglomeration as against the limiting assumption of controlled growth. However, technology and human ingenuity operate to produce a larger and more dispersed urban landscape. Discussion and conclusions follow this qualitative analysis.

中文翻译：

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对城市规模和相关主题的限制

摘要 本文探讨了影响城市和城市发展的几个概念和应用。目的是探索城市和城市增长的极限。这些城市扩张反映在查尔斯顿 SC 和波特兰 OR 的增长中，它们通过夜间灯光表现的变化。这些概念包括承载能力、增长或警戒线边界、集聚、技术变革以及人类的聪明才智和创新。本次审查的结论是，历史表明，没有强有力的证据表明城市增长可以在规模或范围上受到限制。由于与受控增长的限制性假设相比，集聚具有积极的强化作用，因此在没有限制的假设下创建了替代城市未来。然而，技术和人类的聪明才智产生了更大、更分散的城市景观。讨论和结论遵循这一定性分析。