Urban Dynamics Analysis Using Spatial Metrics Geosimulation

Abstract

To simulate urban land-use pattern for past and future through constructing spatial model, dynamics analysis of urban land-use pattern to abstract spatial process of urbanization is an important step. Spatial metrics provide good links between urban land-use pattern and process. This research analyzes urban dynamics of Yokohama city at multi-category system and high spatial resolution scale in terms of spatial metrics under the support of the data set “Detailed Digital Information (10 m Grid Land Use) of Metropolitan Area” of Tokyo. The results show that the dynamics are presented well using the spatial metrics at the micro-scale. Comparison of the analysis results between multi-category system and binary-category system is carried out to investigate the difference in presenting urban dynamics in terms of spatial metrics at different spatial scales. The results indicate that the difference in depicting the process of urban dynamics exists at different scales, and analyzing urban dynamics at multi-scale using spatial metrics contributes to comprehensive interpretation of urban dynamics. The analyses also offer useful information for research on selecting metrics in interpretation of urban dynamics.