Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
24
Agent-based urban
modeling:simulating urban growth
and subsequent landscape change
in suzhou, china
Yichun Xie and Xining Yang
Agent-based modeling (ABM), as a computational model for simulating the actions and interactions of
autonomous individuals in a network, has attracted growing attention in urban modeling arena in recent years.
The ABM can integrate natural environments (the agents' physical space) with policy making rules (the agents'
intelligence), combine bottom-up actions with global interactions, and simulate processes of urban growth that are
locally determined but moderated by higher-level macro economy. In this chapter, we introduce agent-based urban
modeling and survey current literature. We then describe four key elements of ABM: model design, model
construction, model calibration, and model validation. Furthermore, we provide a case study to illustrate the
aforementioned modeling procedures by applying them to the desakota development in the Suzhou region (China)
between 1990 and 2000. Two types of agents are designed: (1) the township policy agents who control global
development policies and competitiveness of towns and villages in the model; and (2) the developer agents who
determine where open land is to be converted into urban use to seek economic profits. The simulation outcomes
produce spatial patterns of urban growth close to those observed over the calibration period 1990 to 2000.
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