Modeling Urban Dynamics: Mobility, Accessibility and Real Estate Value

For many decades, aggregate data (pertaining to zones) were used to study urban dynamics, using summary methods that rarely permitted the study of urban phenomena at the spatial process level [CLI 81]. Given the scarcity of data and lack of technology capable of processing data to model the details of the process, urban studies’ research was still able to obtain conclusive results with regard to the conceptual aspects of urban dynamics and modeling of interrelationships among a city’s basic elements, especially with regard to social and economic aspects. Partly hindered by issues of a modifiable area units problem [OPE 79] and ecological fallacy [ROB 50], this research rarely produced operational tools capable of modeling and simulating the detailed operation of the urban system. This made it difficult to plan for its development following overlapping social, economic and political change at various geographic levels (from the global village to the local neighborhood, and at the national level). Nevertheless, it is indispensible to evaluate the scope and relevance of urban planning and development undertaken by local authorities (cities, higher levels of government associations, etc.) or conducted by the private sector (households, land developers, firms, etc.) [GEE 03].