Simulation of the complexity of cities with cast

This paper presents the experience of development and operation of CAST - a City Analysis Simulation Tool. The work is based on collaboration between researchers, urban practitioners and computer scientists. The underlying principles of CAST are designed to capture the complexity of cities through a component based approach driven by an extended Cellular Automata model structure. The system model obtained through the interaction of components addresses the key aspects of the complexity of cities by integrating economics, land use, transport and population dynamics. Operation of the model will be tested using data from several local authorities. CAST allows the rapid exploration of many 'what-if' scenarios including the impact of possible development and policy changes.