A Cellular Automaton Model of Land Use and Land Cover Change:

Lessons Learned from a Hundred Applications

Keith Clarke

University of California, Santa Barbara

kclarke@geog.ucsb.edu

 

The SLEUTH model is a cellular automaton model of both urban growth and land use change. The model has been applied to over a hundred different cities around the world, and the first meta-analyses of the model's fit to these cities  has been conducted. In this presentation, I will review the mechanics of the model and the model's assumptions, including the more complex self-modification property and the change-space land use component. An overview of the various model refinements and experiments will be given, with a discussion of the various model applications. A preview of current work, in which the model is being applied on a national scale to the entire lower 48 states of the US will be discussed.