Land Use Evolution and Impact Assessment Model: Difference between revisions
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owner = Brian Deal, Varkki Pallathucheril | |
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homepage = [http://www.leamgroup.com/index.htm |
homepage = [http://www.leamgroup.com/index.htm www.leamgroup.com/]| |
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Revision as of 22:07, 28 July 2010
| Industry | Software Geographic Information Systems (GIS) |
|---|---|
| Founded | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Owner | Brian Deal, Varkki Pallathucheril |
| Website | www.leamgroup.com/ |
The Land Use Evolution and Impact Assessment Model (or LEAM) is a computer impact assessment model developed by LEAMgroup, Inc. The desktop model simulates alternative land use transformation scenarios over many years. LEAMgroup is different than most land use transformation models because it takes into account many drivers that contribute to the overall outcome. The goal of the model is to determine the growth potential of all land within the greater LEAM model. Population, geography and land use for a particular study area serve as background information from which decisions are based concerning future land use changes. Economics, transportation, utilities, neighboring land uses, and random chance all contribute to a final growth decision within a given cell.
The mission of the LEAMgroup is to help others understand the relationships between human economic/cultural activities and biophysical cycles from a changing land use perspective. Understanding the extent of how one system affects another will allow for further understanding of land use management and to more informed decisions in the future.
History
The LEAMgroup, Inc. is a company created at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by professors Dr. Brian Deal and Dr. Varkki Pallathucheril in the late 1990s.
Users
The LEAM model generates models mostly for various metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) and different Council of Governments. LEAMgroup is currently supporting models for the Traverse City region (Michigan), the St. Louis region (Missouri), the Peoria region (Illinois), McHenry County (Illinois) and the Champaign-Urbana region (Illinois).
LEAM Approach
The fundamental LEAM approach to modeling urban land-use transformation dynamics begins with drivers, those forces (typically human) that contribute to land-use change.
Current model driver sub-models include: land price, economic factors, population factors, social factors, geographic limits and factors, transportation mechanisms and factors, utility and infrastructure requirements, neighborhood development factors, resource limitations and factors, open space requirements and stochastic scenario drivers.
Impact assessment sub-models include: water quality and quantity, air quality, habitat fragmentation, threatened/endangered species, energy impacts, economic impacts (societal and fiscal) and ecological impacts.
Each driver is developed as a contextual sub-model run simultaneously in each grid cell of raster-based GIS map(s); linked to form the main framework of the model and produce landscape simulation scenarios. Sub-models are completed and run independent of larger LEAM framework so that variables can be scaled and plotted in formats that help visualize and calibrate sub-model behavior before it becomes integrated into a larger model.
Model drivers represent the dynamic interactions between the urban system and the surrounding landscape. Altering input parameters, change the spatial outcome of the scenario being studied, enabling what-if planning scenarios that can be visually examined and interpreted for each simulation exercise.
LEAM model applications are process at the LEAM Lab, a distributed, high-performance computing environment and results are presented in an easy-to-navigate, web-based graphic user interface. Scenario results and impact assessments can be displayed in a number of ways: as simulation movies, through a built-in mapping tool, in graph or chart displays, or simply as raw data.