Abstract
Beyond Map: Modeling Future Urban Landscape Using LEAM Track: Modeling Author(s): Zhanli Sun, Brian Deal Policy makers and planners often face tremendous difficulties in decision making because of a lack of vision into the future of urban growth. The Land-use Evolution and impact Assessment Model (LEAM) has been developed as a GIS based comprehensive urban planning support system on a regional scale that simulates land-use change across space and time. By incorporating ecological, economical, social, geographic, and environmental theories into a single hierarchical framework, LEAM helps to examine and comprehend the complex relationships between what drives growth, where growth is likely to occur (under a variety of scenarios), and the potential impacts. The LEAM model runs are a series of GIS maps or movies that show the transformation of the landscape and their associated economic, social, and environmental impacts. The LEAM approach has been applied to the St. Louis region through collaboration between the LEAM research group and East-West Gateway Council of Governments. Zhanli Sun University of Illinois at Urbana and Champaign Urban and Regional Planning 111 Temple Buell Hall 611 Taft Dr. Champaign , IL 61820 US Phone: 217-2650217 E-mail: gis_sun@yahoo.com Brian Deal University of Illinois at Urbana and Champaign 111 Temple Buell Hall 611 Taft Drive Champaign , IL 61820 US Phone: 217-333-1911 E-mail: deal@uiuc.edu |