Unveiling co-evolutionary patterns in systems of cities: a systematic exploration of the SimpopNet model

Abstract

Co-evolutionary processes are according to the evolutionary urban theory at the center of urban systems dynamics. Their empirical observation or within models of simulation remains however relatively rare. This chapter is focused on the co-evolution of transportation networks and cities and applies high performance computing numerical experiments to the SimpopNet co-evolution model in order to understand its behavior. We introduce specific indicators to quantify trajectories of such models for systems of cities, and apply these to exhibit co-evolutionary regimes of the model. This illustrates how the systematic exploration of a simulation model can qualitatively transform the knowledge it provides.