Tool summary

Name of the tool
The MOLAND Urban Modelling Tool

Description of the tool
The MOLAND urban modeling tool presents an opportunity to simulate the impact of actions and policies assumed by decision makers and particularly by urban and regional planners. It is based on a spatial dynamic system called a “cellular automaton”. The digital part represents a two-dimensional grid of cells. Each cell has its own unique set of attributes (physical, environment, social, economic and institutional) that characterize the suitability to support particular function, accessibility to network system and zoning status for various land uses and periods. The cells combine and form neighbourhoods and states (i.e. 24 land-use). The MOLAND urban growth model presents how the land-use of a point (or “cell”) at any time is directly influenced by the neighbouring land-uses. This “neighbourhood effect” represents the attraction and repulsion effects of neighbouring land uses on the central cell in the neighbourhood. In the MOLAND model, each land-use function has a set of “transition rules”, which quantify how it is affected by neighbours of the other land-use functions.

Specific topic
The model is elaborated for the simulation of urban land use development.

Sector/s of use

Waste	Energy	Water	Transport	Green/Blue	Building & Land use
0	0	0	0	0	M

M - main sector, 1 - sub sector and 0 - n/a

Scale of applications

Component	Building	Neighbourhood	City	Region
0	0	0	1	1