6533b7d0fe1ef96bd125a9fc

RESEARCH PRODUCT

S-ghost city : self-generating housing, open space and transportation in the city

subject

description

International audience; S-GHOST city is a theoretical simulation model aimed at investigating the spatial patterns of urban growth. A gridded (cellular) 2D space is considered, with a CBD located at a crossroad. Households arrive sequentially in the city and choose their location by maximizing a utility function subject to a budget constraint. Households have preference for open-space and for the public goods that are located in their neighbourhood. They bear a cost for commuting to the CBD along the road network. As households migrate into this growing city, agricultural plots are converted to residential use, and the public authorities create a continuous network of roads so as to provide all new households with an access to the CBD. The authorities levy a local tax for compulsory purchasing from landowners the land that is used for roads. Given these simple rules, the city grows according to the individual choice of migrants, leading to a self-organisation of the residential space, the road network and the open-spaces. The range of spatial patterns and network forms that can be obtained from varying the parameters of the model is analysed, as well as the social costs (welfare, total transportation costs) of these anarchic urban developments.