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Netw Spat Econ (2008) 8:183200
DOI 10.1007/s11067-007-9050-7
Paul Pfaffenbichler & Gnter Emberger &
Simon Shepherd
Published online: 11 January 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007
Abstract Cities worldwide face problems like congestion or outward migration of businesses. The involved transport and land use interactions require innovative tools. The dynamic Land Use and Transport Interaction model MARS (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator) is part of a structured decision making process. Cities are seen as self organizing systems. MARS uses Causal Loop Diagrams from Systems Dynamics to explain cause and effect relations. MARS has been benchmarked against other published models. A user friendly interface has been developed to support decision makers. Its usefulness was tested through workshops in Asia. This paper describes the basis, capabilities and uses of MARS.
Keywords Land use . Transport . Dynamic modelling . Decision making . Public participation
1 Introduction
Urban regions today face serious problems caused by transport and land use developments. To deal with them decision makers need knowledge about strategies which can contribute to goals such as reducing road congestion, increasing quality of life, or how to ensure future economic prosperity. It is well known that transport and land use planning are strongly interrelated and play a key role in the solution of present and future problems. Obviously decision making processes concerning land use development are becoming more and more complex. On the one hand the number of involved stakeholders is increasing and on the other hand long term feedback effects have to be
P. Pfaffenbichler (*) : G. Emberger
Institute for Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Guhausstrae 30/231, 1040 Vienna, Austriae-mail: [email protected]
S. Shepherd
Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
The Integrated Dynamic Land Use and Transport Model MARS
184 P. Pfaffenbichler et al.
taken into account. To reduce the risk of inappropriate and publicly unacceptable decisions the use of state of the art decision support tools is essential. One of these tools, the Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator MARS, is presented here. MARS is a dynamic Land Use and Transport Interaction (LUTI) model.
The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 gives an overview of todaysdecision making context in European cities. To support this process a series of decision...