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Can ant colonies and mycelium teach us to redesign cities?

Sofiane Madmar, Didier Josselin, Olivier Blight, Vincent Labatut, Christophe Mazzia, Marc Ciligot-Travain

May 22, 2026

Biological systems—ant colonies, fungal networks, river systems—solve routing and resilience problems without central planning. This paper argues that transportation networks could become more efficient and robust by copying these strategies. The framework connects natural design principles to infrastructure challenges, suggesting a path beyond current engineering approaches.
Published as Unravelling Nature's Models for Transportation Network: Considering a Biomimicry Framework arXiv:2605.23766
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