To measure a civilization:
Arrive at a city, a new city, with nothing...how to survive? Urban bush craft. Try to hook into the systems - the systems of life that are the veins and arteries of a surviving citizen. And by citizen meaning the true - a member of the city. First the fresh water systems - the pipes that steal the water from mountains far away and quench the multiplying population. Then the food, imported from the rest of the world, preserved and distributed, the first water and food must be found without money - you arrived with nothing - there are systems for these.
The systems then get more complex, more culturally bent, you must find shelter, this begins with clothing and ends with a house, there are various systems for this. You must find places to wash.
PRIMARY SYSTEMS:
Water systems
Food systems
Shelter systems
Then the systems that organize the citizens must be infiltrated. You must find a way to gain relative worth, in order to trade. Money. A job, work for food and shelter directly or for a wage...play the money game.
SECONDARY SYSTEMS:
Relative Worth
Information systems
Transport systems
Communication systems
How quickly and easily can this be achieved? What is the value of the city to the citizen for life...everything if you are to live within it. And this is defined, labeled and enabled by architecture.
