›› 2013, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (5): 662-671.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1047.2013.00662

• ARTICLES • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Three-dimensional Urban Growth Simulating Based on Cellular Automata

QIN Jing1,2, FANG Chuanglin1, WANG Yang1,3   

  1. 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China;
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
    3. Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou 510070, China
  • Received:2013-01-07 Revised:2013-03-18 Online:2013-09-29 Published:2013-09-29

Abstract:

Research of urban growth has focused on the two-dimensional flat space, while the development of the modern city is three-dimensional. So the development and changes of the modern urban space could not be accurately described by two-dimensional method. Therefore, the research of three-dimensional urban growth has great significance to the future development of the city. Based on the theory of self-organization in urban development, the urban growth simulating model using three-dimensional cellular automata (3DCA) which proposed by Bengguigui was improved. The center distance parameter and the traffic distance parameter were added to the model. And new three-dimensional urban growth models were set up: the center distance model and the transport distance model. The two establishment steps of the model are as follows: Firstly, described the calculation methods and the economic interpretations of all the model parameters. Secondly, gave the potential development function of three-dimensional urban growth and the transition rules of the cellular state. The three-dimensional urban growth simulating experiments based on the given models was developed by NetLogo 3D. NetLogo 3D is a programmable modeling environment for natural and social phenomena simulation, which could show simulating results both in two dimension and three dimension view. The experiment results show that the three-dimensional urban growth simulating with the models proposed in this paper is more approximate to the reality city extension progress than Bengguigui's model, and also prove that the urban development is a self-organized process.

Key words: three-dimensional urban growth, 3D cellular automata, urban growth simulating, NetLogo 3D modeling