CASA Working Paper 20

How Land-Use-Transportation Models Work

This working paper serves as an introductory reference for those studying the application of land-use-transportation models to the simulation of urban systems. The paper is by no means comprehensive, but aims to provide the reader with a foundation in the basic principles underlying land-use-transportation models and to set those principles in the context of urban management and urban studies.

The paper opens with taxonomy of urban simulation models and a treatment of descriptive and analytical models. This serves to situate land-use-transportation models in the context of a broader simulation environment. The paper then reviews land-use-transportation models according to their simulation techniques and individual components. Towards the second half of the paper, the discussion moves to a critical overview of urban simulation and deals with model weaknesses and strengths in a holistic fashion, before concluding with a discussion of some innovations in academic research that are likely to shape future models.

This working paper is available as a PDF. The file size is 497 KB.

Authors: Paul Torrens

Publication Date: 1/4/2000

Download working paper No. 20.