Real Estate Developers as Agents in the Simulation of Urban Sprawl

Abstract

Urban expansion is one of the processes that generates the greatest impact on the distribution of land uses, leading to important territorial changes. Its evolution has become a highly relevant object of analysis and studies on the subject have gradually advanced from a focus on patterns of land use and cover, towards a more detailed analysis of the dynamic interactions between all the actors involved in these processes. Among the agents usually included as an active and decisive part of these dynamics are the real estate developers. This study aims to analyze these agents, identify their behavioral patterns, and categorize and better understand them. For this, a qualitative approach was employed, in which a structured questionnaire elaborated from the point of view of an expert was administrated to the real estate developers in the area of the Henares urban–industrial corridor, between Madrid and Guadalajara, where important processes of urban expansion have taken place. The information obtained from an interview with an expert and the questionnaire revealed important information about the work of real estate developers and will be of great help in the elaboration of an Agent-Based Model to simulate and analyze urban growth. This process is crucial to determine in a more empirical way the different decision rules that are necessary to develop this type of model.