Emergent Urban morphologies in an agent-based model of housing

Abstract

How do the cities form and emerge? Howsensitive is this process to initial conditions of their locations, sizes and other parameters? To answer these questions many theories were developed over the recent years by policy makers, economists, urban planners and mathematicians.Most of these theories use top-down approaches. However, since housing markets consist of large number of heterogeneous agents with non-linear interactions, many have recognized the importance of studying them as complex systems. Drawing inspiration from the Alonso-Muth-Mills model, we developed an agent-based model within which household agents maximize their utilities subject to rent and transportation costs. Through simulating this agent-based model, we show that city-like dense urban agglomerates emerge automatically, and depending on the distribution of incomes, transportation modes, absence and presence of highways and secondary centers of employment, the model is capable of producing a diverse array of urban morphologies.