22/07/2014
The increasing pressure from human activities on the physical and natural environment impacts the urban land-use change process and directly contributes to degradation of the natural landscape. Activities such as urbanization, industrial development, excessive agriculture and deforestation are associated with urban sprawl that have adverse effects on the environment and contribute to global climate and environmental changes. It is estimated that the majority of the world population will live in urban areas in just a few decades. Urban land-use processes are driven by complex social interactions between the multiple actors. These drivers are characterized by competition for space, economic benefits, governmental interests and sometimes sustainability goals. The design, development and integration of spatial modeling and simulation approaches provide insightful and innovative ways to address this challenge for improved management and policy strategies. The main objective of this research is to build a series of land-use change simulation models that represent and characterize these dynamic spatial processes for better understanding, analysis and forecasting.
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