Modelling Urban Development with Geographical Information Systems and Cellular Automata (Electronic book text)

Urban development and the migration from rural to urban areas are significant global phenomena. Various models aim to address these issues, especially cellular automata models. This book presents a simulation model of urban development based on cellular automata principles and provides theoretical context. The first part of the text supplies a practical review of modelling techniques in urban development research and develops a cellular automaton model incorporating fuzzy set and fuzzy logic approaches. The second part of the text implements this model in a GIS environment to simulate the process of urban development as applied to the metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia.