Models for Assessing the Effects of Community Change on Land Use Patterns

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently developed a selective inventory and evaluation of 22 leading land use change models currently in use or under development. This chapter outlines the necessity for planning models and provides a synopsis of the computer-based land use change models that are contained in the EPA’s report. General and technical details of each model are presented and the capabilities of each model in relation to potential community questions and issues are compared.