The Self-Organizing City: An Agent-Based Approach to the Algorithmic Simulation of City-Growth Processes
This paper discusses the suitability of algorithmic-based modeling processes in the development of ad-hoc software for urban planning and urban design. Firstly, it involves the identification and discussion of former city computational models. Secondly, i
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Abstract This paper discusses the suitability of algorithmic-based modeling processes in the development of ad-hoc software for urban planning and urban design. Firstly, it involves the identification and discussion of former city computational models. Secondly, it shows the development of an application that deals with complex urban systems from an urban design point of view, by using an agent-based modeling approach.
Keywords Agent-based modeling City growth simulation Self-organization Complexity Emergent behavior
Urban design
1 Introduction Computational techniques in the design of cities are being used more and more, fact that has also characterized the development of city and territorial planning through algorithms. From the development of Discourse in the sixties, the first computer language specifically designed for regional planning, a vast proliferation of computational models applied to urban building simulation have appeared, based on cellular automata, GIS informed models, and agent-based systems, among other techniques [1]. Nevertheless, there are almost no significant contributions from the point of view of the analysis and design of the city. Most of the software developed in this field belongs either to visual disciplines absorbed mainly by the videogame industry [2] or to non-informational 3D virtual model building [3]. Other approaches to informational city models, which work with user-accessible data bases, have a strong social imprint that partially neglects the A. Nadal J. Pavón (&) Facultad de Informática UCM, Ciudad Universitaria, s/n, 28040 Madrid Spain e-mail: [email protected]
Z. Wen and T. Li (eds.), Practical Applications of Intelligent Systems, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 279, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-54927-4_38, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
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morphological aspects of the study. For instance, Juval Portugali’s examples [4] that study the social segregation in the Gaza Strip through mathematical models represented by Cellular Automata. Generally, computational simulations of urban models lack informational content specifically related to inherent characteristics of the city, such as the relationships between building density and functional complexity, their influence on racial or social distributions, the need for certain types of infrastructure and their quantification, or even an exhaustive study of the morphological body of the city itself, understood as a response to its internal, external, or environmental logics. Cities cannot be described only as a series of volumes whose most representative rationale is their own spatial distribution and organization (cities have been largely described and studied as a ‘‘game of volumes under light’’), but as a ‘‘game of volumes under information’’ [5]. This paradigm shift offers the possibility to study another model of cities and territories, one that is both informed and informative. Thus, designers will be able to simulate city growth and grasp the model’s informa
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