Complex urban simulations and sustainable urban planning with spatial and social implications

Abstract

Cities can be seen as complex systems of heterogeneous processes with a high variety of different influences (e.g. social, infrastructural, economic, and political impacts). This especially applies for tasks concerning urban development of existing assets. The optimization of traffic flows, reduction of emissions, improvement of energy efficiency, but also urban climate and landscape planning issues require the involvement of many different actors, balancing different perspectives, and divergent claims. The increasing complexities of planning and decision processes make high demands on professionals of various disciplines, government departments, and municipal decision-makers. In the long term, topics like urban resilience, energy management, risk and resource management have to be taken into account and reflected in future projects, but always related to socio-spatial and governmental aspects. Accordingly, it is important to develop models to be able to understand and analyze the outcomes and effects of governmental measures and planning to the urban environment. Thus, a more systematic approach is needed - going away from well-defined city models to city system models. The purpose is to describe urban processes not only quantitatively, but to grasp their qualitative complexity and interdependencies, by modeling and simulating existing urban systems. This contribution will present the City System Model (CSM) concept closely related to an Urban Energy Planning use case, will highlight the methodology, and focus on first results and findings from an ongoing interdisciplinary research project and use case to improve the basis of information for decision-makers and politicians about urban planning decisions.