Models and Techniques for Urban Planning

The intuitive appeal of using a model for urban planning purposes is the possibility of being able to test different policies and programs before they are implemented. In a manner analogous to the testing of a model airplane in a wind tunnel, a mathematical model of a city could be used to predict the consequences of different combinations of public actions and exogenous events. Public actions include urban renewal, taxation, transportation facilities, water, sewer, and other utilities, zoning, building code enforcement, mortgage and other credit availability, antidiscrimination efforts, employment opportunities, and so forth. Consequences of these actions which might be of interest are areas of population growth and physical development, the level of prosperity and the distribution of income, the level of employment, the quality of housing available to different subgroups of the population, the aesthetic quality of the environment, the responsiveness of the system to the needs of the people, the locations of sources of employment, the efficiency of the transportation system, the social costs of less-than-ideal conditions, etc. While there is little possibility of being able to answer many of these questions with present knowledge, the mathematical model seems to be the most likely vehicle if we are ever to answer them.