ABSTRACT
Geographic information systems (GIS) provide rich spatial databases but have been traditionally static. The coupling of dynamic models to GIS provide an insight to the evolution of spatial phenomena. Cellular automaton is a modelling approach with an increasingly important role for conceptual and practical modelling of discrete dynamic systems. Cellular automata models are ideally applied for diffusion modelling, considering a small number of state variables and relatively simple transition rules. The cellular automaton cells are grouped in subsets, each subset representing a reach of uniform characteristics in the river. P. Diogo et al. developed a cellular automata model for forest fire propagation that combines R. Rothermel’s model with a cellular automata view of the landscape. A cellular automaton appears as a promising approach to simulate spatial phenomena. It was shown that for water quality and forest fire propagation modelling the results obtained with cellular automata were similar to the ones obtained with the traditional models.
