Simulating urban dynamics by coupling top-down and bottom-up strategies

ABSTRACT

Cellular automata (CA) are effective tools for simulating urban dynamics. Coupling top-down and bottom-up CA models are often used to address macro-scale demand and micro-scale allocation in the simulation of urban dynamics. However, those models typically ignore spatial differences in terms of the coupling process between macro-scale demand and micro-scale allocation. Herein, a novel approach for combining top-down and bottom-up strategies based on simulating urban dynamics is proposed. An optimizing strategy was used to predict the parameter of the inverse S-shaped function of future urban land use pattern and further deduce urban land increment within each concentric ring. The maximum probability transformation rule was incorporated into the CA model to address the micro-scale allocation. Wuhan was selected to test the performance of the proposed approach, and the conventional and the proposed approaches were compared. The results demonstrated that the proposed approach can not only retain the model’s accuracies but also better simulate the macro morphology of urban development dynamics and generate more realistic urban dynamic pattern in the urban sub-center and fringe regions. The proposed coupling approach can also be used to generate different development scenarios. The approach is expected to provide new perspectives for coupling top-down and bottom-up CA models in modeling urban expansion.