Slumulation: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach to Slum Formations

Authored by Andrew T Crooks, Amit Patel, Naoru Koizumi

Date Published: 2012-10

Sponsors: United States National Science Foundation (NSF)

Platforms: NetLogo

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: http://www.css.gmu.edu/Slums/

Abstract

Slums provide shelter for nearly one third of the world's urban population, most of them in the developing world. Slumulation represents an agent-based model which explores questions such as i) how slums come into existence, expand or disappear ii) where and when they emerge in a city and iii) which processes may improve housing conditions for urban poor. The model has three types of agents that influence emergence or sustenance of slums in a city: households, developers and politicians, each of them playing distinct roles. We model a multi-scale spatial environment in a stylized form that has housing units at the micro-scale and electoral wards consisting of multiple housing units at the macro-scale. Slums emerge as a result of human-environment interaction processes and inter-scale feedbacks within our model.

Tags

Agent-based modeling Informal Settlements Developing Countries Housing Slums Urban Poor