Modeling and Urban Studies: an Introduction

This paper presents an introductory reading on modeling and urban studies. The main goal is to gather key information and literature references on the subject to allow the readers to establish a starting point for the study of the field. Issues regarding the evolution of urban modeling will be addressed. The relationship between theory (mainly related to modeling) and practice (regarding planning activities) will also be discussed. A set of modeling techniques will be presented. Finally, some conclusions will be drawn on the use of models and on its weakness and strengths.