A computerized tool based on cellular automata and modified game of life for urban growth region analysis

Abstract

There are many factors that can affect the urban growth and it has great implications towards socio-economic for the related areas. Usually, the urban planning and monitoring are performed and administered by the local authorities for improvement and development purposes. This research focuses on analyzing the urban growth of Klang Valley in Malaysia (a developing country), where this is the most rapid growth area in the country. This area is divided into ten districts with different management and development plans. This work proposes a computing tool that applies cellular automata and modified game of life techniques to perform detailed analysis on urban expansion of Klang Valley area based on temporal imagery datasets. As a case study, satellite images were taken from different years where the prediction can be observed within fifteen years duration. The cellular automata technique is used for extracting high details of aerial images based on every pixel, while the modified game of life is for analyzing urban expansion. Based on the analysis, the pattern of the growth in any selected region in the area can be identified and the urban planners for each district can work together, discuss and make decision for monitoring, changes and development of Klang Valley.