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the digitized version as a substitute for the real thing (and worse, then destroy the original). At the
same time, it is possible that technological representations of nature can garner some psycholog-
ical benefits, especially when (as in an inside office) direct access to nature is otherwise unavail-
able. Other less obvious design spaces involve, for example, airplanes. In recent discussions with
Boeing Corporation, for example, we were told that for economic reasons engineers might like to
construct airplanes without passenger windows. After all, windows cost more to build and decrease
fuel efficiency. At stake, however, is the importance of windows in the human experience of
flying.
In short, this case study highlights how Value Sensitive Design can help researchers employ
multiple psychological methods, across several studies, with direct and indirect stakeholders, to
investigate (and ultimately support) a multiplicity of human values impacted by deploying a cutting-
edge information technology.
UrbanSim: Integrated Land Use, Transportation, and Environmental Simulation
In many regions in the United States (and globally), there is increasing concern about pollution,
traffic jams, resource consumption, loss of open space, loss of coherent community, lack of sus-
tainability, and unchecked sprawl. Elected officials, planners, and citizens in urban areas grapple
with these difficult issues as they develop and evaluate alternatives for such decisions as building
a new rail line or freeway, establishing an urban growth boundary, or changing incentives or taxes.
These decisions interact in complex ways, and, in particular, transportation and land use decisions
interact strongly with each other. There are both legal and common sense reasons to try to under-
stand the long-term consequences of these interactions and decisions. Unfortunately, the need for
this understanding far outstrips the capability of the analytic tools used in current practice.
In response to this need, Waddell, Borning, and their colleagues have been developing UrbanSim,
a large simulation package for predicting patterns of urban development for periods of twenty
years or more, under different possible scenarios (Waddell, 2002; Noth et al., 2003; Waddell et al.,
2003). Its primary purpose is to provide urban planners and other stakeholders with tools to aid in
more informed decision making, with a secondary goal to support further democratization of the
planning process. When provided with different scenarios—packages of possible policies and
investments—UrbanSim models the resulting patterns of urban growth and redevelopment, of
transportation usage, and of resource consumption and other environmental impacts.
To date, UrbanSim has been applied in the metropolitan regions around Eugene/Springfield,
Oregon (Figure 16.3); Honolulu, Hawaii; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Houston, Texas, with appli-
cation to the Puget Sound region in Washington State under way. UrbanSim is undergoing signif-
icant redevelopment and extension in terms of its underlying architecture, interface, and social
goals. Under the direction of Borning, Friedman, and Kahn, Value Sensitive Design is playing a
central role in this endeavor (Borning et al., 2005).
UrbanSim illustrates important aspects of Value Sensitive Design in addition to those described
in the previous two case studies:
Distinguishing Explicitly Supported Values from Stakeholder Values
In their conceptual investigations, Borning et al. (2005) distinguished between explicitly sup-
ported values (i.e., ones that they explicitly want to embed in the simulation) and stakeholder val-
ues (i.e., ones that are important to some but not necessarily all of the stakeholders). Next,
Borning et al. committed to three specific moral values to be supported explicitly. One is fairness,
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