1st International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software - Lugano, Switzerland - June 2002
Keywords
integrated assessment, spatial modelling, policy support
Start Date
1-7-2002 12:00 AM
Abstract
Environment Explorer is a system developed to support spatial scientists, planners and decision makers at the regional and national level in the Netherlands to analyse a wide range of social, economic and environmental policies and their associated spatial patterns. The core of this system consists of linked dynamic spatial models operating at both the micro- and the macro-geographical scales. At the macro scale, the modeling framework integrates several component sub-models, representing the natural, social, and economic sub-systems. At the micro level, cellular automata based models determine the faith of individual parcels of land based on institutional, physical and environmental factors as well as on the type of activities in their neighborhoods. The approach enables the straightforward integration of detailed physical, environmental, and institutional variables as well as the particulars of the transportation infrastructure, and permits a very detailed and integral representation of the evolving spatial system. In the policy support system the models are supplemented with dedicated tools for interactive design, analysis and evaluation of policy interventions and scenarios. This system covers the entire territory of the Netherlands and represents processes at the national, the regional (40 administrative regions), and the cellular (25 ha cells) levels. It runs on top of detailed GIS information and generates future land use and land cover for the period 2000 till 2030. The quality of the alternatives tried out is expressed in some 40 economic, social and environmental indicators available in the model as dynamic maps. The application has been developed over the past 5 years. It has been used at the national and the provincial level for the preparation of spatial policy documents. Some conclusions relative to the development and the use of the system are presented.
Environment Explorer: Spatial Support System for the Integrated Assessment of Socio-economic and Environmental Policies in the Netherlands
Environment Explorer is a system developed to support spatial scientists, planners and decision makers at the regional and national level in the Netherlands to analyse a wide range of social, economic and environmental policies and their associated spatial patterns. The core of this system consists of linked dynamic spatial models operating at both the micro- and the macro-geographical scales. At the macro scale, the modeling framework integrates several component sub-models, representing the natural, social, and economic sub-systems. At the micro level, cellular automata based models determine the faith of individual parcels of land based on institutional, physical and environmental factors as well as on the type of activities in their neighborhoods. The approach enables the straightforward integration of detailed physical, environmental, and institutional variables as well as the particulars of the transportation infrastructure, and permits a very detailed and integral representation of the evolving spatial system. In the policy support system the models are supplemented with dedicated tools for interactive design, analysis and evaluation of policy interventions and scenarios. This system covers the entire territory of the Netherlands and represents processes at the national, the regional (40 administrative regions), and the cellular (25 ha cells) levels. It runs on top of detailed GIS information and generates future land use and land cover for the period 2000 till 2030. The quality of the alternatives tried out is expressed in some 40 economic, social and environmental indicators available in the model as dynamic maps. The application has been developed over the past 5 years. It has been used at the national and the provincial level for the preparation of spatial policy documents. Some conclusions relative to the development and the use of the system are presented.
