Applying SDSS using the Technique of CA to Urban Planning and Management: the case of SirJan city

Spatial decision support systems (SDSS) are a branch of DSS with particular emphasis on spatial and geographic aspects of problems This kind of DSS is also used for analyzing urban planning and management issues and is composed of three main subsystems: database management, model management and dialog/interface subsystems. As the model management subsystem, cellular Automata based modeling is a flexible and powerful technique for modeling spatial dynamics. In this paper, the technique of Cellular Automata (CA) using logistics regression models as the transformation function, is incorporated into SDSS for the simulation of urban growth of SirJan city. Urban spatial growth is modeled to identify important and effective factors in explaining land use change and urbanization. Software packages used in the modeling process include ArcGIS, MATLAB and SPSS. The model can be used as a tool for urban planners and managers to support their decisions regarding urban problems with mathematical systems and quantitative models. Urban policies and their impacts can be evaluated as different scenarios using this model, before being applied to the city.

Keywords:

Spatial decision support systems , cellular automata , logistics regression , urbanization management