Framework for Spatial Models for Future Cities - Regional Science Matters - page 354

further affecting the use of automobiles. “Why are we happy to use a methodology
that encourages investment in schemes that help those with highest incomes travel
further and faster, but place little or no value on helping those with low incomes or
who are excluded from society to reach local opportunities to meet basic necessities
in life such as shopping and social interaction?” (Mackett 2009 , pp. 7). Alternative
approaches need to be developed that allocate scarce urban land resources
efficiently to accommodate both growing demand for transportation and land use
activities. An example of such approaches has been explained above in Sect. 17.5.1 ,
alluding need for building and solving three-dimensional urban activity model
(Kim 1989 ).
17.6 A Framework for Spatial Models for Future Cities
A major challenge for developing spatial models for future cities is to recognize the
rapid developments in socio-economic variable surrounding us and to learn how to
integrate these changes into conventional spatial models. Critical questions raised
above in relation to the rapid changes in the socio-economic activities include:
• How can we provide much needed resources to accommodate the additional
urban population?
• How can a balance between two conflicting concerns, i.e. the welfare of the
megacity and the interests of the individual city, be planned for?
• How can we utilize ITCs and pervasive computing technologies in building
spatial models for future cities?
• How can we accommodate the behavioral changes of automobile ownership
trends?
At the minimum, spatial models for future cities should be able to include the
following criteria and variables:
• Criteria
- Criteria should include to maximize the welfare of the metropolis as a whole
and, and at the same time, that maximize the welfare of individual member
jurisdictions.
- Welfare criteria should be able to evaluate policy objectives for the benefit of
the citizens in a city.
• Resource Efficiency
- Spatial models for future cities should be the one that minimize consumption
of scarce resources including land, capital, and other environmental
resources including energy. 20 The models should be able to accommodate
three-dimensionality of urban activities in order to minimize the consumption
of the scarce urban resources.
20 An excellent work on urban resource efficiency can be found in, http://sustainabledevelopment.
un.org/content/documents/1124SustainableResourceEfficientCities.pdf . Accessed on February
24, 2014.