Building a city in vitro: The experiment and the simulation model

Erez Hatna, Itzhak Benenson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

All current urban models accept the 'first-order recursion' view, namely, that the state of an urban system at time t is sufficient for predicting its state at t + 1. This assumption is not at all evident in the case of urban development, where the behavior of developers and planners is defined by the complex interaction between long-term and short-term plan guidelines, local spatial and temporal conditions, and individual entrepreneurial activity and cognition. In this paper we validate the first-order recursion approach in an artificial game environment: thirty geography students were asked to construct a 'city' on the floor of a large room, with each student using the same set of fifty-two building mock-ups. Based on the analysis of game outcomes, the first-order recursive set of behavioral rules shared by all the participants is estimated and further employed for computer generation of artificial cities. Comparison between the human-built and model patterns reveals that the constructed set of rules is sufficient for representing the dynamics of the majority of experimental patterns; however, the behavior of some participants differs and we analyze these differences. We consider this experiment as a preliminary yet important step towards the adequate modeling of decision-making behavior among real developers and planners.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)687-707
Number of pages21
JournalEnvironment and Planning B: Planning and Design
Volume34
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2007

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Architecture
  • Urban Studies
  • Nature and Landscape Conservation
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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