Abstract New opportunities have been brought to development of Chinese urban studies with the presentation of scientific viewpoint of development and rising of sciences of complexity. Under this background, it is necessary to reform present research pattern of urban studies and try to build an integrative theoretical framework of urban development research based on holism. Therefore, this paper advances the proposition of urban systems engineering (USE) from the viewpoint of systems engineering, which is essentially a kind of methodology based on holism for urban development research. As the thinking basis of USE research, holism has always been the core during the development of system sciences and systems engineering, which has also guided the development of system philosophy. Different from other disciplines, USE makes urban whole instead of urban system as its research object, for the latter only focuses on simultaneous and diachronic depiction of material existence of cities and can not reflect the urban whole in human logos; besides, it is helpful to regard urban development as an entire system composed of development practice, development research and institution arrangement. Thus the three research dimensions of USE, i.e., urban system, urban logic and urban institution, are formed. Because of the existence of human being in cities, this particularity of USE has its inevitability. Then the ontology, epistemology, methodology and axiology of USE are in turn discussed from the aspect of system philosophy.
2006, Vol. 21 
