UrbanSim is a software-based simulation system for supporting planning and analysis of urban development, incorporating the interactions between land use, transportation, the economy, and the environment. Our purpose is to provide tools for stakeholders such as urban planners, government staff, and citizens' groups to help predict future patterns of urban development under different possible scenarios over periods of twenty or more years. These tools should support deliberation and debate on such issues as building new transit systems or freeways, or changing zoning or economic incentives, as well as on broader issues such as sustainable, livable cities, economic vitality, social equity, and environmental preservation.
Research in CSE motivated by UrbanSim has been primarily in the areas of human computer interaction and designing for human values, domain-specific programming languages, and software engineering.
For many years, the project was headquartered at the University of Washington in an interdisciplinary center; with the move in 2009 of Paul Waddell to the University of California Berkeley, project coordination has moved south as well.
For more information, including papers and Open Source software, please see the UrbanSim home page.
CSE faculty contact: Alan Borning.