Using Multi-agent System for Residential Expansion Models——A Case Study of Hongshan District,Wuhan City

Key words: 
• residential expansion /
• MAS/RE model /
• GIS /
• location choice

Abstract: Residential expansion is gaining more and more attention from government authorities and urban planners.However,most of the current urban models focus heavily on presenting economic,political and ecological objectives of urban development,while seldom taking the effects of human behavior into consideration.Multi-agent systems for land use/cover change(MAS/LUCC),which mainly concern the behavioral effects of stakeholders on the processes of land use/cover change,are promising to fill the gap.This article,based on the concepts of MAS/LUCC model,con-structs a multi-agent system for residential expansion model(MAS/RE)through the analysis of the behavior of gov-ernment authorities and households.The model takes complex human actions into account,namely urban master plan-ning,planning review and approval,policies of traffic,economy and environment,location and allocation choices of the households and their interrelationships.Taking Hongshan District of Wuhan City,Hubei Province as an illustration,the model is implemented on Arc/info platform to simulate residential expansion between 1996 and 2002.The study result shows that the model is suitable for understanding the process of residential expansion with the effects of human actions,and is especially effective for its capacity in presenting spatio-temporal and behavioral complexity.Therefore,the model can be a reference for policy-making for government authorities and urban planners.