Simulation Analysis of Informationalized Urban Spatial Development

Abstract

Conventional urban spatial development patterns have been greatly influenced by transportation conditions. A brand-new ”space of flows” has been formulated by the innovative application of information and communications technologies which will affect the importance of distance in location decisions. This may create a new form of an information city and may cause changes in the patterns of traditional urban spatial development. Confronted with this issue, this study attempts to establish an evaluation model using the concept of ”spatial accessibility” which is integrated under the application of information and communications technologies and which takes into account accessibility as an observational index for local development opportunities. Discrepancies when considering information development opportunities of each place were analyzed, and the influences which were overcome using the intersection of transportation efficiencies and activities as the basis for measuring new spatial separations w ere assessed this was further applied to simulate urban spatial transitions. In this article, we used Tainan City, southwestern Taiwan as a case study and found that a spatial development pattern which considers information and communication technologies will eventually expand outward from a single core pattern of past traffic accessibility. As to the simulated situation for various information policies in the future, the developing tendency for urban spatial diffusion will aggressively be driven by information policy.