September 2-5 the Harokopio University in Athens hosted the 17th European Colloquium on Quantitative and Theoretical Geography (ECQTG2011). At this conference RIKS presented an abstract and a paper, which is now available from our publications page.

• Jasper van Vliet

Urban planning and development in Denmark can be characterized by a relatively strong planning framework. Christian Fertner of the University of Copenhagen applied Metronamica to assess the impact of the fingerplan on the land use developments in the Copenhagen metropolitan area. The fingerplan stimulates urban development around the major transport axes radiating from the center of the city, preserving green open spaces in between. Results of this project are presented available in this report.

• Jasper van Vliet

Recently a paper by Kiril Stanilov was published which describes an application of Metronamica that simulates urban development of West London. The application is particularly interesting since it spans a very long period of urban development (from 1870 onwards), and because it is very rich in the data for drivers for land use change.

• Jasper van Vliet

Recently, RIKS developed an activity based land use model. This is an extension to Metronamica, which simulates changes in activities such as population or employment in a spatial explicit way. Hence it accounts for land uses as well as densities. We are happy that the paper that describes the concepts of this model is now accepted for publication in Environment and Planning B.

• Jasper van Vliet

Last year RIKS started the project Wuhan Urban Accessibility Planning Support Systems (Wuhan UAPSS). The project, which is funded by the world bank, aims to demonstrate a methodology that supports Chinese cities in the development of sustainable land use and transportation strategies. For more information, please go to the project page.

• Jasper van Vliet

MOLAND-Light, a simplified version of the MOLAND land-use model, is now available. It allows running simple land use simulations on a remote server, and downloading all results to the user’s computer. MOLAND-Light is filled with data for regions in the complete EU-27.

MOLAND-Light was developed in the PLUREL project and can be downloaded from our project website.

• Jasper van Vliet

On September 14 and 15 2011, RIKS will organize a course called land use modelling with Metronamica. This is an introductory course where participants will learn how to work with the system and it can be applied in their own projects. For more information please contact Roel Vanhout

• Roel Vanhout

The 2nd international Conference on China’s Urban Transition and City Planning will be organized in Cardiff, United Kingdom May 27 and 28, 2011. At the conference RIKS will present a paper on “Simulating urban development scenarios for Wuhan” in the session “Development and planning” on Saturday 28. This paper will present the work carried out for the Wuhan urban accessibility planning support systems project which is funded by the World Bank.

• Yu-e Shi

September 2-6 2011 the Harokopio University of Athens, Greece will host the 17th European Colloquium on Quantitative and Theoretical Geography (ECQTG2011). We are happy to announce that two papers are being accepted for presentation at this conference, one on the calibration of cellular automata land use models and one on the integration of socio-economics in land use modelling for natural resource management.

• Jasper van Vliet

Over the last few years several new algorithms were added to the Map Comparison Kit, many of which have been described in scientific publications. The MCK reader, which contains a collection of these papers, is now updated until 2011 and available from the MCK website.

• Jasper van Vliet

We are happy to announce the publication of the paper “Comparison of scale and scaling issues in integrated land-use models for policy support” (van Delden et al.) in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. The paper discusses and compares scaling issues that were encountered in the development of four integrated land-use models: DeSurvey, WISE, LUMOCAP and MedAction.

• Jasper van Vliet

After the great interest in our introduction course training course last summer, we are happy to announce a successor: the Advanced Metronamica Calibration. In two sessions of three days each, participants will be trained in the details of setting up, calibrating and running Metronamica applications.

The first 3 day session will be organized June 8 to 10, and the second session of this course will be on September 7 to 9, both at the RIKS premises in Maastricht, The Netherlands. For this workshop there are only two places available. The course fee is 2500 Euro not including VAT and lodging but including lunches and dinners. For more information, or subscription, please send an email to Roel Vanhout with your name, affiliation and number of people attending (pending availability).

• Jasper van Vliet

May 17 to 19 a cross disciplinary dialogue on sustainable development of regional resources, RegioResources 2011, will be organized in Dresden, Germany. RIKS will participate and present preliminary results of from the Sustainable Pathways 2 project, where we combined ecological economics and land use modeling to support regional development for two regions in New-Zealand.

• Jasper van Vliet

March 24-25 RIKS will present its work in the TICAD project in the international conference about this project in Szeged, Hungary. In this project RIKS develops a spatial decision support system that includes information on land-use change as well as hydrology. In addition we provide a number of workshops to introduce the system to local stakeholders and planners.

• Roel Vanhout

We are happy to announce the release and immediate availability of the latest version (4.2) of the Metronamica land-use model.

In addition to the many features already found earlier versions, such as an user-friendly interface, extensive scenario management functionality and a broad range of analysis tools, Metronamica 4.2 is equipped with a zoning tool. This zoning tool allows you to introduce and interpret spatial plans, such as natural protection or urban expansion plans, directly in the system. For more information on Metronamica, land-use modeling in general or a demonstration version of Metronamica, please contact us.

• Jasper van Vliet

RIKS recently released a new version of the Map Comparison Kit, which includes the Kappa Simulation algorithm. Kappa Simulation assesses the accuracy of land-use changes, rather than land-use maps. We are happy to inform that our publication about this algorithm, entitled "Revisiting Kappa to account for change in the accuracy assessment of land-use change models" now appeared in Ecological Modelling.

• Jasper van Vliet

Last year RIKS started its work on the Sustainable Pathways 2 project. In this project we aim to build a spatial decision support system for Wellington and Auckland, new Zealand. The system will combine land use modeling and ecological economics modeling approaches. Some initial work on the link between land use models and ecological economics models has already been presented and published.

• Jasper van Vliet

The 14th AGILE international conference on Geographic Information Science will be organized in Utrecht, the Netherlands from April 18 to April 20. At this conference two papers will be presented that address the work of RIKS. Specifically, one paper discusses the activity based land use model that was developed recently, and the other presents a spatial decision support system that links ecological economics to land-use modeling.

• Jasper van Vliet

A new version of the Map Comparison Kit (3.2.2) is available for download from the MCK Website.

This version includes a new comparison algorithm, Kappa Simulation. This method assess the agreement of state changes, rather than states. Hence it requires an initial land use map, the actual land use map and the simulated land use map. The method is described in detail in a paper that is accepted for publication in Ecological Modelling. Moreover, some bugs were fixed, in particular in relation to Windows 7.

• Jasper van Vliet

The DeSurvey Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) is a modelling framework for regional development and desertification that was developed within the DeSurvey project. It includes a number of socio-economic and bio-physical models that can be selected for region-specific applications based on the issues at stake, the data availability and the extent of the area. Applications are provided in the form of Spatial Decision Support Systems that allow assessing the impact of alternative policies or scenarios on a range of indicators. An overview of the system is available from this presentation, if you want more information about the project or the software, please contact Hedwig van Delden.

• Hedwig van Delden

A video has been released on youtube that presents the Waikato Integrated Scenario Explorer (WISE) and demonstrates its use for strategic spatial planning in the Waikato region, New-Zealand. WISE is a tailor made SDSS that was developed in the Creating Futures project.

• Jasper van Vliet

RIKS wishes you all the best for 2011.

• Jasper van Vliet

We are happy to inform about a research paper that has been published in Environmental Management recently:

Volk, M., Lautenbach, S., Van Delden, H., Newham, L.T.H., Seppelt, R. (2010) How can we make progress with decision support systems in landscape and river basin management? Lessons learned from a comparative analysis of four different decision support systems. Environmental Management, volume 46, p.834-849.

For other recent RIKS publications, please look here.

• Jasper van Vliet

The 7th International Conference on Ecological Informatics (ISEI7) “Unravelling Complexity and Supporting Sustainability” will be held in Ghent, Belgium, from December 13 to 16. During this conference Hedwig van Delden will present a session keynote on applications of spatial-temporal modelling methods for decision support in environmental management and another presentation on the use of GIS and remote sensing in the development of policy support systems. Both presentations will be on Tuesday December 14.

• Jasper van Vliet

November 13 and 14 RIKS led a workshop to develop land use and accessibility scenarios for Wuhan, China, with participants from the World Bank, ITC, Wuhan university, Wuhan Urban Planning Bureau and Wuhan Comprehensive Transportation Planning & Design Institute. This workshop was received very well. Consequently the World Bank invited RIKS again to present ideas for a planning support system for accessibility of urban areas in Wuhan to an audience of more than 30 coming from the World Bank, the Wuhan Urban Construction Bureau and local project team.

• Yu-e Shi

After the great interest in our introduction course training course last summer, we are happy to announce a successor: Advanced Metronamica Calibration. In two sessions of three days each, participants will be trained in the details of setting up, calibrating and running Metronamica applications.

The dates for the first 3-day workshop is now fixed on December 8, 9 and 10 at the RIKS offices in Maastricht, The Netherlands. For this workshop there are only two places available. The course fee is 2500 Euro not including VAT and lodging but including lunches and dinners. To subscribe, please send an email to Roel Vanhout with your name, affiliation and number of people attending (pending availability).

We have more courses planned in 2011 so if you cannot make it this time, contact us anyway to discuss options.

• Roel Vanhout

November 10 to 12 the Wageningen university and Research Centre will host an international conference on scaling and governance, entitled: “Scaling and Governance Conference 2010”. Hedwig van Delden will present a paper here on “Scaling issues in integrated land-use modelling for policy support”, for which the abstract (nr 66) is now available from the book of abstracts.

• Jasper van Vliet

After a successful introduction course, RIKS is organizing a follow up course on the calibration of the Metronamica land-use model. This course is designed for users that are already familiar with Metronamica and now want to set up and calibrate their own application. As the calibration course will be a small scale intensive course that consists of two sessions of three days each. The dates will be set in discussion with the participants, but probably late 2010 and / or early 2011. For more information, please contact Roel Vanhout.

• Roel Vanhout

September 29-30 2010 Hedwig van Delden presented the DeSurvey Integrated Assessment Model at the international scientific conference on advanced scientific tools for desertification policy. More information on the conference including the presentation on the DeSurvey IAM can be found here.

• Jasper van Vliet

October 19 to 22 the University of Copenhagen will host the international conference on “Managing the urban rural interface”, related to the PLUREL project. RIKS will present three papers on this conference, in the sessions about “Instruments and tools for Sustainability Impact Assessment” and “Urban-rural regions in a globalised world – driving forces on land use change”.

• Jasper van Vliet

RIKS recently joined the consortium of FP6 project PLUREL (Peri-urban Land Use Relationships). Within this project RIKS will develop MOLAND-Light, a web based, a web-based tool that allows users to easily asses future land developments for European regions. We will announce on this website when the tool becomes publicly available, in the meantime you can read more about our contribution to this project here.

• Jasper van Vliet

Recently RIKS presented at the iEMSs 2010 conference in Ottawa, Canada and the DDSS 2010 conference in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The three papers that were presented are now available from our publications page.

• Jasper van Vliet

RIKS recently started working on the TICAD project. This project comprises the development and implementation of a spatial decision support system that integrates land-use and hydrological components into one system. More information can be found on the TICAD project page.

• Jasper van Vliet

July 19 to 22 the Technical University Eindhoven will host the 10th international conference on Design and Decision support systems in architecture and urban planning (DDSS 2010). Tuesday morning RIKS will present one of her tailor made systems, the Xplorah SDSS, in session TU1.1 – Integral planning support.

• Jasper van Vliet

July 5 - 8 2010 the International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software (iEMSs2010) will be held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. On this conference Hedwig van Delden will present papers in two sessions. One paper on user interaction during the development of the Waikato Integrated Scenario Explorer in session S11, and one paper the integration of economic and land use change models in session S16.

• Jasper van Vliet

The international environmental modelling and software society (iEMSs) selects each year the best papers published in its journal in three different categories. For 2009 the paper “A formal framework for scenario development in support of environmental decision-making”, coauthored by Hedwig van Delden was selected for the award in the category “integrated modelling”. The awards will be presented at the Fifth Biennial meeting of the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society, held in Ottawa, Canada from July 5–8, 2010.

• Jasper van Vliet

On June 1st and 2nd RIKS organized a training course for the Metronamica land use model. With participants from various institutes over Europe the course turned an interesting forum for land use modelers. Due to high interest RIKS organizes a Metronamica training course on June 15th and June 16th, for which there are still places available. When you are interested in attending this course, please contact Roel Vanhout.

• Jasper van Vliet

RIKS was recently awarded a contract for a two year project that aims to build an SDSS for the Tisza river basin, a tributary to the Danube River. This SDSS will include the Metronamica land use model as well as MIKE SHE, a hydrological model developed by DHI. More information about the project will follow soon in the overview of our projects.

• Jasper van Vliet

As a followup to previous news item on this page, we confirm that a second Metronamica training course this spring will take place on June 15th and 16th 2010. To subscribe, contact Roel Vanhout.

• Roel Vanhout

The Metronamica course on 1st and 2nd of June is now fully booked. Due to high interest we are evaluating organizing a second training for the Metronamica land use model on June 15th and 16th. We will announce here when this is finalized, at the latest on the 14th of May. In the mean time, to express your interest in attending this second course on the 15th and 16th of June, send an email to Roel Vanhout.

• Roel Vanhout

On April 13th UCL - CASA organized a one day conference on “Advances in Spatial Analysis & e-social science”. During this conference some very good results of the Metronamica land use model applied to west London were presented by Kiril Stanilov. The application is especially interesting as it uses high resolution land use data (25 meter resolution) and covers a very long period of urban development (over 100 years). The presentation can be found here (20mb).

• Jasper van Vliet

Today RIKS has launched a dedicated website for our flagship product Metronamica. On www.metronamica.nl you can read in plain English what Metronamica is and how it can be used in practice. There are examples and links to relevant projects to show what is possible. The website contains plenty of new interesting information, whether you are already familiar with Metronamica or not. Have a look!

• Jelle Hurkens

In preparation for the State Of the Environment Outlook 2010 (SOER 2010) RIKS has collected and compared a series of land use outlooks for Europe in 2020 / 2030, including several policy scenarios. This comparison will be used by the EEA as input to the thematic chapters of SOER 2010.

• Jasper van Vliet

Last week a consortium consisting of ITC, the University of Wuhan, the Wuhan urban planning bureau and RIKS presented a proposal to the World Bank China office. This proposal, which is now granted, aims at doing a scenario study on urban growth for the city of Wuhan. In this project RIKS will apply Metronamica to Wuhan to explore future land dynamics, the results of which will be used for further assessment in terms of the city’s accessibility.

• Jasper van Vliet

On June 1st and 2nd, RIKS organizes a "Land use modelling with Metronamica" training course. For more information, please visit this webpage.

• Roel Vanhout

In November 2009 the Creating Futures project team organised a series of training sessions to present, discuss and evaluate the first full prototype of the Waikato Integrated Scenario Explorer (WISE), which is being developed as part of the Creating Futures project. Based on these comments an enhanced version of WISE will be delivered to the regional council Environment Waikato in the fall of 2010.

• Hedwig van Delden

RIKS recently participated in a consortium which assessed the integration of Natura 2000 into the wider countryside.

The project was commissioned for by the EC DG Environment in the context of the EU biodiversity policy. As part of this study RIKS did an assessment of the trends in land use changes, which helps to understand the processes that create the present and develop scenarios for the future.

• Jasper van Vliet

A new version of the Map Comparison Kit (3.2) is available for download from the MCK Website.

This version includes the result of software developments that facilitate comparisons of maps with a large number of cells. This extension was commissioned for by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, PBL). In addition a few bugs were fixed.

• Jasper van Vliet

All staff at RIKS wish you all the best for 2010.

• Roel Vanhout

We are happy to announce the release and immediate availability of the latest version 4.1 of our flagship product Metronamica, the premier land use modeling package for planners and researchers.

In addition to the many new features already found in version 4.0 of Metronamica such as an all-new redesigned user interface, extensive scenario management functionality and a broad range of analysis tools, this new version adds support for a regional interaction model to more accurately capture the complex effects of the competion between areas for resources such as jobs and inhabitants on a spatial scale above the local level.

For more information on Metronamica, land use modeling in general or a demonstration version of Metronamica, don't hesitate to contact RIKS's managing director Hedwig van Delden at hvdelden@riks.nl.

• Roel Vanhout

On the 8th of July, Bernardo Furtado successfully defended his PhD thesis titled 'Modeling social heterogeneity, neighborhoods and local influences on urban real estate prices: spatial dynamic analyses in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, Brazil' at the University of Utrecht. Bernardo used RIKS' product Metronamica to come to the conclusion that social and spatial heterogenuity have a large influence on urban development. As part of his research, Bernardo spend time at RIKS and worked in close cooperation with modelers and programmers to adapt Metronamica for his specific needs. We congratulate Bernardo on his accomplishment and wish him will at his new job in Brasilia.

• Roel Vanhout

The following paper has been published in Environment and Planning B:
Kok, K. and H. van Delden (2009) Combining two approaches of integrated scenario development to combat desertification in the Guadalentin watershed, Spain, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 36, p.49-66
For more RIKS publications, visit our publications page.

• Alex Hagen-Zanker

In the Springer GeoJournal Library series the new title: "Planning Support Systems Best Practice and New Methods" Geertman, Stan; Stillwell, John (Eds.) is now available. RIKS has authored two chapters in this book: (6) Elbe DSS: a planning support system for strategic river basin planning: Bernhard M. Hahn et. al. and (17) New ways of supporting decision making: linking qualitative storylines with quantitative modelling: Hedwig van Delden and Alex Hagen-Zanker. More information, table of contents and order form can be found here: Springer. An online version of the book, where individual chapters can be ordered, is available at SpringerLink.

• Bernhard Hahn