Eric Kemp-Benedict said on 26 June 2012: Score: 0
This patterns identified in this paper, and the seeming strong regularities, are intriguing (intriguing enough to vote for the paper!). However, I have some questions and critical comments.

The logistic model appears to be introduced post-hoc after observing the data, but that isn't entirely clear. In any case, it would be interesting to know what historical land-use laws might have been in place. Has the only constraint been placed by the green-belt movement? Also, circa 1700 the city structure was strongly influenced by the ideas of one man--Robert Hooke--who laid out much of the city after the Great Fire. How much did his plan constrain and shape future development?

More generally, it would be interesting to see a discussion of theories of urban growth, and whether these results either support or fail to support those theories. The paper refers to some of the literature, and a fuller discussion would be interesting to see, especially of recent work (e.g., Herold et al., 2003: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0034425703000750).