Digital Government: Software Architectures for Microsimulation of Urban Development, Transportation, and Environmental Impact

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EIA-0090832Alan BorningUniversity of WashingtonTITLE: Software Architectures for Microsimulation of Urban Development, Transportation and Environmental ImpactPatterns of land use and available transportation systems play critical role in determining the economic vitality, livability, and sustainability of urban areas. Transportation interacts strongly with land use; different kinds of transportation systems induce different patterns of land use, while at the same time, different kinds of land use induce demands for different kinds of transportation systems. Both land use and transportation have substantial environmental effects, in particular on emissions, resource consumption and open space. Government policies and investments affect patterns of land use and transportation in many complex and sometimes unintended ways.This proposal will develop a fully disaggregated Microsimulation system for modeling urban development and government investments and policies related to transportation, land use and environment. Technical support can play a critical role in fostering informed civic deliberation and debate on these issues by allowing urban planners and stakeholders to be able to consider different scenarios-packages of possible policies and investments-and then, based on these alternatives, model the effects of these scenarios on patterns of urban growth and redevelopment, of transportation usage, and resource consumption, over periods of twenty or more years. This proposal will concentrate on two related computer science areas; the software engineering issues that arise in the design and construction of such a large, complex model, and the human computer interaction issues that arise in using it.A set of government partnerships is an integral part of this research. At the federal level, there are commitments from the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration (both units in the Department of Transportation), and at the local level, from the Puget Sound Regional Council, the governmental organization charged with land use and transportation planning.