Urban Growth Simulation Through Cellular Automata: A Way to Explore the Fractal Nature of Cities

This paper presents a cellular automata (CA) model of urban growth, which simulates the process of urbanization in an hypothetical region. The model contains a set of rules that define the spatial interaction of cells and a set of parameters that can be appropriately fixed in order to explore different urban forms. What we further try to explore is how the different results of the model can be evaluated through fractal analysis and the estimation of the fractal dimension. We assume that the patterns generated are fractal in nature and that their analysis and evaluation should be based on this recognition. A relationship is identified between the parameters of the model and the value of the fractal dimension, corresponding to more compact or fragmented and discontinuous sprawl patterns. In a subsequent section some further issues are examined in order to make the model applicable in the examination of existing urban patterns.Simulazione di crescita urbana, automi cellulari, frattali. Classificazione