UrbanSim: Urban Planning Simulation Software
UrbanSim helps city governments and urban planners model the interactions between land use, transportation, and the economy. It is designed for teams that need to test multiple development scenarios and site feasibility without requiring deep GIS or programming skills.
At a glance
- Category
- Other
- Best for
- City Governments, Urban Planning Firms, Government Agencies, Real Estate Professionals, Metropolitan Planning Organizations
- Pricing
- Pricing was not clearly available from the provided evidence. Buyers should confirm current pricing on the vendor website.
- Key use cases
- Land Use Scenario Modeling, Multifamily Site Feasibility, Transportation Impact Analysis, Policy Impact Evaluation
- Official website
- urbansim.com
UrbanSim is a simulation and decision-support platform designed for urban planning and sustainable development. It allows users to create predictive models that account for behavioral realism and policy sensitivity at the parcel, block, or zone level.
The software is built for urban planners, real estate professionals, and government agencies. It supports the analysis of how different land use regulations and transportation investments may impact community outcomes, such as housing affordability and greenhouse gas emissions.
Capabilities include rapid site feasibility for multifamily development and the ability to run cloud-based simulations simultaneously. This allows users to compare alternatives against specific building codes and constraints.
Buyers should confirm if their specific metropolitan area is covered by the platform's existing data templates or if they will need to upload and calibrate their own internal data.
Key Features
Runs multiple urban development simulations simultaneously in the cloud, with most simulations completing in under a minute per simulation year.
Supports modeling at the parcel level, as well as aggregated modeling at the census block or zone level.
Provides visual representations of simulation results and indicators to help users interrogate data.
Analyzes the development capacity of specific sites for multifamily housing based on zoning constraints and local policies.
Supports the creation of alternative land use, transportation, and economic scenarios to analyze potential community impacts.
Uses algorithms to help identify development capacity while meeting land use regulations and building codes.
Use Cases
Analyzing how changes in zoning designations or development constraints at the parcel or block level affect urban growth.
Testing different building options and unit mixes for a specific site to understand development capacity.
Modeling the interaction between transportation investments and land use patterns to evaluate accessibility.
Exploring the effects of affordable housing requirements or density bonuses on the real estate market.
Best For
Pricing
Pricing was not clearly available from the provided evidence. Buyers should confirm current pricing on the vendor website.
FAQ
It is designed for urban planners, real estate professionals, modelers, and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs).
No, the platform is designed so that users do not need a PhD, programming, or GIS skills to access data and analytics.
UrbanSim supports parcel-level, census block-level, and zone-level modeling depending on the project needs and location.
Source category: Other
Source subcategory: Urban Planning Software
