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Josh Van Zak

Academic Year: 2010-2011

Sim City Realized and its Implications

Area of Concentration

  • Community and Economic Development

Key Terms:

Economics, Predictability, Computer modeling, Simulation, SimCIty, Liberty City

Significance/Broader Impact:

I picked this topic because I am interested in how the digital world will factor into the design and structure of the city and all its functions. I feel that the growing scale at which cities operate necessitates modeling all of these processes and complexities on the computer, where information can be layered, interacted with, taken apart and isolated, and manipulated. This subject has been growing in popularity and practice in the past three years, mainly in Europe by city planners. They model an exact copy of the city and move buildings, neighborhoods, roads, pipelines, telephone wires, lighting, etc., around and are able to see the effect that each movement would be projected to have on transprotation, pedestrian activity, and aesthetics. By doing this study I hope to further the research into the uses of computer simulation of cities and point to possibilities like predicting the outcomes of activities and policies in the city as they are played out in a computer game, with great accuracy, before they happen in real life.

References

1. Adams, Paul C. “Teaching and Learning with SimCity 2000”, Journal of Geography, (2001).
2. Batty, Michael. Decision Support, GIS, and Urban Planning. Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London (1996).
3. Bern, Resch. “An Approach towards Real-Time Data Exchange Platform System Architecture”. Sixth Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications. (2008).
4. Devisch, Oswald. “Should Planners Start Playing Computer Games? Arguments from SimCity and Second Life”, Planning Theory and Practice (2008).
5. Edgar Dale, Audio-Visual Methods in Teaching (3rd Edition). Holt, Rinehart, and Winston (1969).
6. Friedman, Ted (1999) “The Semiotics of SimCity” http://131.193.153.231/www/issues/issue4_4/friedman/ (1999).

Links:

http://www.metspacelab.com/simgame.html
http://www.springerlink.com/content/ql325056001414x1/fulltext.pdf
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19767/
http://www.sunspotworld.com/docs/Red/SolariumUsersGuide.pdf

Fall SRP Proposal Abstract

Systems thinking is an approach for developing models to facilitate our understanding of complex concepts, patterns of behavior, and the underlying structure responsible for the patterns of behavior. With respect to the city, phenomena like economic growth, taxes, population density, and zoning, are rendered as algorithms that are visible, dynamic, spatial processes occurring on the computer screen according to the rules by which they function in the city. By creating a computer game simulation of an existing city in real time and real space, citizens, politicians, and city planners, will gain greater understanding for how the mechanisms of the city work, and how they can work for and against the citizens. This will produce better informed voters and more honest politicians. The program proposed will have a realtime statistical feed feature where users can look up information layered on top of the built environment, and a hypothetical game-like scenario where users can manipulate and interact with systems within the city. This paper has found that optimization and predictive algorithms, along with realtime statistical feeds have been used in several peer-reviewed case studies related to urban planning, returning highly accurate results. Further, the transparency of computer programming language renders any assumption or error immediately visible at the exact step in which it occurs in the program.

Winter Senior Research Project (SRP) Abstract

Systems thinking is an approach for developing models to facilitate our understanding of complex concepts, patterns of behavior, and the underlying structure responsible for the patterns of behavior. With respect to the city, phenomena like economic growth, taxes, population density, and zoning, are rendered as algorithms that are visible, dynamic, spatial processes occurring on the computer screen according to the rules by which they function in the city. By creating a computer game simulation of an existing city in real time and real space, citizens, politicians, and city planners, will gain greater understanding for how the mechanisms of the city work, and how they can work for and against the citizens. This will produce better informed voters and more honest politicians. To this end, it is conceivable that the platform that a politician runs on, ie. proposed taxes, budget cuts, etc., can be run through this simulation and would then return realistic predictions of the consequences of these proposed initiatives. This paper seeks to explore the feasibility, benefits, and ethical implications of creating such a program by using what has been researched about using realtime statistical feeds, urban planning simulations, and optimization algorithms.

Study's Major Findings and Contributions

The contribution of my research aims at contributing to the conversation around using computer simulation in urban planning to predict and manipulate urban outcomes. It’s my understanding that the main component missing from most urban simulations used in planning is actual layered and comprehensive information being fed into the simulation in realtime, along with a hypothetical “game” function where users can manipulate, optimize, and predict, outcomes in the city. The findings of the research show that the addition of these components, as have been individually tested in different case studies, to urban simulation will dramatically increase the accuracy and utility of this tool for urban planners, politicians and citizens. Thus, an input in one area of the simulated city can be seen for its effect across all other areas and functions of the city, before the effect takes place in real life. Similarly, vast amouhts of information will be layered on top of the urban simulation part of the program, including zoning codes, movie ticket price, gas prices, the built environment, traffic jams and patterns, weather, etc. This database will be accessible and interactive for users, similar to a bombination of WikiCity, SImCity, and GoogleEarth.

Evidence

I will use two case studies and email correspondences with one game designer for SimCity, and one critic of using SimCity in urban planning, to answer my research question. The Urban Simulation of Berlin case study shows how, through a specific planning strategy found in the simulation, this city can economically be reactivated. The urban simulation of Berlin was created in the 1990s and shows the development of the cityʼs entire urban area. These development stages were calculated from extensive statistical data about the urban infrastructure and were planned for the period 1990 to 2010. They have, to date, in part been carried out. The value of an urban simulation whose algorithm is built on the historical development of the city makes it possible to simulate future developments, their various phases of development, as well as planning variants. The statistical data used was compiled from information from the Berlin Senate departments, the regional department of statistics, the local map department, as well as from various businesses and investors who are building in Berlin or plan to.
The effects of implementing a road bypass on a major freeway in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, were researched in 2003-4 at the Technical College of Rapperswil. Case studies of bypasses implemented in Switzerlandʼs history were studied. The student researchers then created a computer simulation of the entire area of Frauenfeld, and input the relevant variables that had been historically effected by the implementation of a bypass on a major freeway. The simulation contained all relevant data of the city in the state it was in the time, and used the algorithm to extrapolate the future effects of adding the bypass to the road. The effects were deemed undesirable by the study, and citizens voted “no” on implementing the bypass after reading the widely distributed study.

Spatial Dimension

My project proposes using real life urban space to create a simulation of everything from traffic patterns and how they effect pedestrian walkability in the city, to economic contributions by neighborhood and business. Space is literally mapped in a simulation, with layers of information on top. In this way, space can be interactive in the space of the computer game, creating more plasticity and ability to be manipulated by the user.

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