Agent-based models for Latin American Cities

Latin American cities are characterised by high speeds of urban growth and the development of spontaneous settlements. Such change has produced many problems especially in relation to urbanisation and housing.

The other day I came across the work of Guilherme Ressul who maintains the tzero site. One of his projects is to model the growth and development of Favelas in Brazil. For the project he has created an agent-based model using Maya to explore the growth of such developments. If you are interested in such 3D visualisation and agent-based modelling it is worth exploring his Favela micro-site, which includes movies, scripts and further information about the project.

Another interesting agent-based model specifically developed for the study of Latin American cities, in relation to urban growth is that by Joana Barros. Her model focuses on a specific kind of urban growth that happens in Latin American cities, called “peripherisation”. This is characterised by the formation of low income residential areas in the peripheral ring of the city.

More information on Joana's work can be found here.