ABSTRACT
One of the characteristic features of contemporary urbanization in western industrial countries has been the rapid sprawl of urban land uses and occupations into hitherto rural areas. This chapter reviews the ways in which the dynamics of the urban field can be simulated on a computer. It defines the urban field as a useful concept for examining the contemporary processes of urban and rural change in Britain and in other western advanced industrial countries. The chapter suggests that an understanding of these processes can be enhanced by developing dynamic computer-based models of these systems of interest. From a review of the literature it is clear that neo-classical, neo-Keynesian, neo-Marxist, systems theory and theories of self-organization could form the basis of a robust dynamic model of the urban field. There are, however, several problems which need to be resolved if incisive research is to be made in this area of dynamic modelling.
