This book introduces planning support systems by combining policy decision-making process with the mechanism of urban spatial or functional development regarding to the planning policies on strategic level. By analyzing policy interactions between household agents, the book concentrates on visualizing and forecasting macro phenomenon of policy effects through revealing the discrete, micro human behaviors around the urban functions of dwelling, recreation, working, and transportation. Simulations are created based on these policy outcome assessments, taking into account the influences of energy and resource consumption and CO2 emission on sustainable development in urban environments. The book is geared towards researchers, universities, and urban policy makers.
The book begins by presenting a framework of urban growth simulation, and introducing Spatial Strategic Planning Support System (SSP-SS). Then, household lifecycle and relocation models are employed for simulating policy impacts on urbanization, and investigating the impacts of spatial strategic planning. Several projects are assessed using agent-based modeling including shopping centre construction, day-care service for aging populations, and developing of "bus city" for reducing transportation CO2 emission. The final chapter identifies the key planning factors that play effective roles on reducing carbon emission in urban master plan by simulating the carbon emission volume in urban area.
