Urban Facilities Management: A Viable System Model

Cities are multi-level complex giant systems composed of many buildings, infrastructure, and facilities. However, there are few systematic explanations and investigations of complex urban management from the perspective of facility management. To fill this gap, this paper first utilized the principles of facility management for industries and commercials to define the concept, function, and content of Urban Facilities Management (UFM). After that, based on the viable system theory and method, the research analyzed the state balance, recursive decomposition, and adaption mechanism of UFM, and constructed a UFM viable system model composed of operation, coordination, control, information, and policy subsystems. The research can provide urban planners and managers with new governance ideas and as theoretical references, as well as play an important role in realizing urban sustainable development.