The Oregon Prototype Metropolitan Land Use Model

This paper describes the design of UrbanSim, the Oregon Prototype Metropolitan Land Use Model, and its application to the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Area 2 . The model is based on a decision-maker perspective on urban development, representing the choices made by households and businesses of whether and where to move and what type of building to occupy, and the choices made by developers to develop or redevelop particular land parcels into different land uses. These market components are integrated through a land market clearing mechanism that adjusts prices to clear the market. A policy interface provides the user-interface to the model, and supports the development, comparison, and evaluation of policy and infrastructure scenarios.