Operational Urban Models State of the Art

Twenty years after Lee's “Requiem for Large-Scale Models”, the urban modeling field is again full of life. There exist a dozen or so operational urban models of varying degrees of comprehensiveness and sophistication, which have been and are being applied to real-life metropolitan regions for purposes of research and/or policy analysis. The paper views the current state of the art of operational “integrated” urban models. It starts by presenting the map of active centers of urban modeling research in the world. Next it defines a framework for the classification and evaluation of urban models, using as criteria comprehensiveness, overall structure, theoretical foundations, modeling techniques, dynamics, data requirements, calibration and validation, operationality, and actual and potential applications. The paper closes by speculating about the most promising avenues to further improvement and diffusion of this kind of model.