A multiscale model of urban morphogenesis

Abstract: The dynamics and processes of urban morphogenesis are a central issue regarding a long-term sustainability of urban systems. They however imply stakeholders and parameters at multiple temporal and spatial scales simultaneously, leading to intricate interactions between dimensions and scales. We introduce in this paper from a theoretical viewpoint a simple agent-based model of urban morphogenesis at the scale of an urban area, with the feature of integrating the microscopic and the mesoscopic scales. At the local level, developer agents drive urban development conditioned by local properties but also an infrastructure network at a smaller scale. The network evolves more slowly following global properties. Indicators of sustainability including modal shares and urban density suggest an application of the model to multi-objective optimisation. We finally discuss possible implementation, extensions and applications of the model.