An agent-based heuristic method for generating land-use plans in urban planning

Land-use models are a well-established component of planning support systems to support urban planning for and with a local community. Existing models are based on either land-suitability analysis or facility-network performance analysis, reflecting two major approaches in modelling for spatial planning—land-use-allocation or land-use-change modelling, and location-allocation modelling. In this study, we propose an agent-based approach to combine methods from both approaches in a single system. We argue and illustrate in a case study that the integrated model is better able to account for a difference in nature between area-type land uses (for example, housing, industry, nature), on the one hand, and facility-type land uses (for example, retailing, schools, medical services), on the other. The model is able to generate a limited set of different land-use-plan alternatives by systematically varying macrocharacteristics of facility networks. The results of a case study suggest that the model generates meaningful sets of land-use-plan alternatives in reasonable computation time.