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City Modeling

Is CityASim yet another SimCity? There is a fundamental difference between SimCity and CityASim. In SimCity, the user controls everything. As the model is top-down, there is no room for the model to self-develop through complex interactions and connectivity between components. SimCity therefore cannot simulate the complexity of the city.

Modeling the city - CityASim model with interactive three-dimensional fitness diagramm.

The CityASim approach is based on principles of Complexity and models cities as truly complex systems, emerging from the bottom-up, as result self-organising and self-developing. Links between city components are created dynamically, through market mechanisms, forming a complex network of processes and transactions analogous to the real city. As this complex network evolves, the results of CityASim simulation can tell something new to the user, far beyond the knowledge of the creators or users of the software.

CityASim is designed to capture the complexity of cities

CityASim has been developed in collaboration between researchers, urban practitioners and computer scientists. The underlying principles of CityASim are designed to capture the complexity of cities through a component based approach driven by an extended Cellular Automata model structure.

The system model obtained through the interaction of components addresses the key aspects of the complexity of cities by integrating economics, land use, transport and population dynamics. Operation of the model has been tested using data from several local authorities. CityASim allows the rapid exploration of many ‘what-if’ scenarios including the impact of possible development and policy changes.

Please contact Savannah for additional information.