Mars - Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator: a Systems Dynamics Based Land Use and Transport Interaction Model

Sustainability is one of today's major public concerns. Urban sprawl, pollution and consumption of non-renewable resources indicate that transport and land use of cities worldwide is not sustainable. Urban planning has become increasingly complex. Decision support tools are essential to help to achieve objectives. Land use and transport form a linked dynamic system. Therefore integrated land use and transport models are the appropriate tool. The book describes the development and use of the integrated, dynamic land use and transport model MARS (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulation). The underlying hypothesis is that cities are self-organising systems and that the principles of Systems Dynamics and Synergetics can be applied. Causal loop diagrams are used to develop a qualitative model. A quantitative model is built and written into code. A comparison between historical data and model results demonstrates the usefulness of MARS. A user friendly interface is introduced. The results from three case studies from Vienna, Madrid and Hanoi are presented. The book is aimed decision makers, transport planners, researchers, lecturers as well as the interested public.