This paper introduces an urban growth simulation model applied to the full scope of China. The model uses a multicriteria decision analysis to calculate the land conversion probability and then integrates it with a cellular automata model. A nonlinear relationship is incorporated in to the model to interpret the impacts of different Land Use and Cover Change driving forces. The Analytical Hierarchical Process is also implemented to compute the variance between weights of different factors. Multiple sizes of neighborhood and different urban ratios in the model rules are tested, and a 5 × 5 neighborhood and an urban threshold of 0.33 are chosen. The study demonstrates the importance of spatial analysis on socioeconomic factors, population, and Gross Domestic Product in land use change simulation modeling. The model fills the gap between the purely economic theory simulation model and the geographic simulation model. The nationwide urban simulation is an example that addresses the lack of urban simulation studies in China and among large-scale simulation models.
Calibration of the SLEUTH urban simulation model using NOMAD and Genetic Algorithms
