A Short Presentation of LucSim

Abstract

LucSim is a cellular automata (CA) dedicated to geographical analysis and spatial simulation for researchers and advanced planning institutes, providing user-friendly software in order to analyze and simulate land use changes and dynamics. Two complementary models are integrated in the CA: (1) a Markov Chain used to calculate transition matrices from a date to another, and (2) a Decision Tree able to automatically determine a set of transition rules to be applied on land use data. LucSim includes GIS compatibility functions allowing to display ESRI shapefiles and is based on raster georeferenced images saved in TIF format. It was mostly applied on French urban case studies.