Modeling Cities and Regions as Complex Systems: From Theory to Planning Applications

by Roger White, Guy Engelen, Inge Uljee

Overview

The theory and practice of modeling cities and regions as complex, self-organizing systems, presenting widely used cellular automata-based models, theoretical discussions, and applications.

Cities and regions grow (or occasionally decline), and continuously transform themselves as they do so. This book describes the theory and practice of modeling the spatial dynamics of urban growth and transformation. As cities are complex, adaptive, self-organizing systems, the most appropriate modeling framework is one based on the theory of self-organizing systems—an approach already used in such fields as physics and ecology. The book presents a series of models, most of them developed using cellular automata (CA), which are inherently spatial and computationally efficient. It also provides discussions of the theoretical, methodological, and philosophical issues that arise from the models. A case study illustrates the use of these models in urban and regional planning. Finally, the book presents a new, dynamic theory of urban spatial structure that emerges from the models and their applications.

The models are primarily land use models, but the more advanced ones also show the dynamics of population and economic activities, and are integrated with models in other domains such as economics, demography, and transportation. The result is a rich and realistic representation of the spatial dynamics of a variety of urban phenomena. The book is unique in its coverage of both the general issues associated with complex self-organizing systems and the specifics of designing and implementing models of such systems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262552509
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	06/11/2024
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Roger White is Honorary Research Professor in the Department of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Guy Engelen is a Researcher at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research.

Inge Uljee is a Researcher at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

1 Introduction 1

2 Theory and Consequences 13

3 Approaches to Modeling Cities and Regions 43

4 Urban Systems and Spatial Competition 65

5 The Fractal Forms of Urban Land Use Patterns 87

6 Urban and Regional Land Use Dynamics: Understanding the Process by Means of Cellular Automaton-Based Models 103

7 The Bigger Picture: Integrated Multiscale Models 141

8 The Cellular Automaton Eats the Regions: Unified Modeling of Activities and Land Use in a Variable Grid Cellular Automaton 175

9 Issues of Calibration, Validation, and Methodology 213

10 Emerging Theory 235

11 Modeling in Support of Spatial Planning and Policy Making: The Example of Flanders 251

12 Paths to the Future 295

References 305

Index 323

What People are Saying About This

Itzhak Benenson

Twenty years ago White, Engelen, and Uljee established the field of cellular automata modeling of urban dynamics. Now these universally recognized leaders offer us a pathbreaking book on urban and regional modeling. Based on complexity paradigm, they develop an operational theory and demonstrate the strengths of their approach with exciting applications. Anyone who wants to obtain a conceptually refined and practically useful perspective on urban and regional planning and forecasting should read this brilliantly written book.

Michael Batty

At last a book that tells us how to build and apply cellular automata models of cities. It provides an important benchmark in our armory of tools that help us unravel the intricate nature of cities as systems. Essential reading for urbanists as well as planners and policy makers alike who are grappling with problems of urban growth and decline requiring powerful methods to inform their predictions.

Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr

This book's authors are among the most respected, experienced, and accomplished innovators in land change simulation modeling. This book is essential reading for scholars of cellular automata and of other spatially explicit landscape models concerning complex systems. The book connects theory, with methodology, with planning.

Peter Allen

Complexity science reveals new limits to our knowledge and predictive powers. Modeling can allow us to explore possible futures with or without various actions, policies, and interventions. Complex systems models such as those presented in this book capture the collective effects of multiple interactions, allowing possible problems to be revealed in advance and avoided, and possible opportunities grasped. Such models are invaluable.

Endorsement

At last a book that tells us how to build and apply cellular automata models of cities. It provides an important benchmark in our armory of tools that help us unravel the intricate nature of cities as systems. Essential reading for urbanists as well as planners and policy makers alike who are grappling with problems of urban growth and decline requiring powerful methods to inform their predictions.

—Michael Batty, University College London, author of The New Science of Cities

From the Publisher

This book's authors are among the most respected, experienced, and accomplished innovators in land change simulation modeling. This book is essential reading for scholars of cellular automata and of other spatially explicit landscape models concerning complex systems. The book connects theory, with methodology, with planning.

—Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr, Professor of Geography, Clark University; coauthor of Advancing Land Change Modeling: Opportunities and Research Requirements

Twenty years ago White, Engelen, and Uljee established the field of cellular automata modeling of urban dynamics. Now these universally recognized leaders offer us a pathbreaking book on urban and regional modeling. Based on complexity paradigm, they develop an operational theory and demonstrate the strengths of their approach with exciting applications. Anyone who wants to obtain a conceptually refined and practically useful perspective on urban and regional planning and forecasting should read this brilliantly written book.

—Itzhak Benenson, Professor of Quantitative Geography, Tel-Aviv University

Complexity science reveals new limits to our knowledge and predictive powers. Modeling can allow us to explore possible futures with or without various actions, policies, and interventions. Complex systems models such as those presented in this book capture the collective effects of multiple interactions, allowing possible problems to be revealed in advance and avoided, and possible opportunities grasped. Such models are invaluable.

—Peter Allen, Emeritus Professor, Cranfield School of Management

At last a book that tells us how to build and apply cellular automata models of cities. It provides an important benchmark in our armory of tools that help us unravel the intricate nature of cities as systems. Essential reading for urbanists as well as planners and policy makers alike who are grappling with problems of urban growth and decline requiring powerful methods to inform their predictions.

—Michael Batty, University College London, author of The New Science of Cities