Adecuación y reprogramación del software urban growth simulator para su utilización en los procesos de planeación de la ciudad de Ensenada, B.C., México

Abstract

Due to the increasing complexity of cities, it is necessary more than ever to have tools that help us understand its urban processes, anticipate unwanted futures and foresee the effects of urban politics in cities before they are applied. Even more, such tools must be designed according to the necessities of each place in which they are going to be applied. In 2002 a project called Urban Growth Simulator (UGS) was initiated developed by the Applied Geography Laboratory of the Department of Geography of Kent State University that allowed to make simulations for Northeast Ohio as a mean of support to planning and evaluation of land use policies, characterized for its simplicity of use as for its flexibility for the input of a variety of data to be taken into account in the simulation, outputting a map and quantitative data for the evaluation of different scenarios of growth, providing critical information for decision taking about land use policies. Due to the increasing complexity of cities, it is necessary more than ever to have tools that help us understand its urban processes, anticipate unwanted futures and foresee the effects of urban politics in cities before they are applied. Even more, such tools must be designed according to the necessities of each place in which they are going to be applied. In 2002 a project called Urban Growth Simulator (UGS) was initiated developed by the Applied Geography Laboratory of the Department of Geography of Kent State University that allowed to make simulations for Northeast Ohio as a mean of support to planning and evaluation of land use policies, characterized for its simplicity of use as for its flexibility for the input of a variety of data to be taken into account in the simulation, outputting a map and quantitative data for the evaluation of different scenarios of growth, providing critical information for decision taking about land use policies.With the objective of using it for its planning exercises the Municipal Institute of Research and Planning of Ensenada requested the source code of the UGS to Ken State University in order to reprogram its operation for adapting it to the cities own necessities. This process is described in this work, in which the origin and experiences of the UGS in the USA is mentioned, its original functionality is characterized and the purposes of its adaptation are mentioned as well as modifications are explained. Last, an example of the software is shown as applied to the agricultural valley of Maneadero in the city of Ensenada, in which results are shown of what could happen by applying various urban development policies. It concludes with future adaptations that are planned to be done to the UGS.