A general constrained cellular automaton for urban planning

This paper presents a general constrained cellular automaton (CA) model that can be used as a planning tool for generating different development options for urban planning. The general constrained CA model, like the gravity model, can generate a suite of CA planning models that can explore a large spectrum of urban planning criteria, such as land suitability, urban forms and development densities. It can be used for the generation of different land development options according to different planning objectives. The model can help urban planners to evaluate the potential impacts of various possible development scenarios. Environmental suitability, urban forms and development density are important considerations in sustainable land development. Using Dongguan, a rapidly growing city in southern China as an example, the paper has demonstrated how the parameters for the environmental factors, urban form, development density are defined, and how the combined constrained model derived from the general constrained CA model are applied in urban planning process.