European Research Group S4: Spatial Simulation for Social Sciences
European Research Groups are research networks, with no legal identity, made of public or private European laboratories, working on the same scientific theme.
The European Research Group S4 proposes to develop spatial dynamic modelling as an integrative tool for understanding, discussing and helping to manage the evolution of our complex societies. We shall focus on comparing models’ performances and enhancing their complementarities for the simulation of spatial evolution at different scales and for a variety of applications.
Coordinating person: Denise PUMAIN
Objectives of the ERG S4
As places are both revealing and integrating a wide range of sources of social change, from global trends to local daily interactions, space is a very important dimension for an information society.
Many challenges facing European society are intimately related to the issues of spatial structure and its transformation over time as a result of a whole range of interacting decisions, policies and technological innovation. Some act at the European scale, such as the multiple changes that result from enlargement policies. Others are perceptible at more local scales, for example, the problems of availability of affordable housing near to jobs, the development of areas of social exclusion and of dislocation, the mismatch between supply and demand of public services, or the differential accessibility of cultural, leisure and educational infrastructures for different groups.
Without the underlying ability to take into account the spatial implications of multiple policies, decisions and technological changes, our societies will experience considerable unnecessary stresses, tensions and costs.
The objective of the Network S4 would be to help provide a dynamic, multi-scalar, spatial modelling capacity that could be used to anticipate the changing patterns of opportunity, stress and need that would result from emerging private and public initiatives concerning economic, residential, and infrastructural developments.
Spatial simulation models are a way of linking together a variety of interacting social and physical processes
Very complex socio-spatial dynamics can be presented on simple maps through different scenarios. We want to help public institutions to gain a much better knowledge of the objectives, preferences, trade-offs of the citizens (the "users" of the territory), and their decision-making processes, which determine spatial self-organization and the reactions of the spatial system to plans and intervention. This will enable them to reliably compare sound and transparent scenarios of evolution, and to debate and make choices on the basis of well founded and structured knowledge.
Internet site : European Research Group S4
This article last updated Thursday 26 March 2009. by Cécile Tannier