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LAND USE & TECHNOLOGY
Computer-based tool helps planners evaluate policy choices

Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor
(217) 333-5491; melissa@uiuc.edu

3/1/03

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Now that it’s played in Peoria, a computer-based simulation tool designed to test urban- and regional-planning policy decisions may prove to be a hit in other cities down the line.

According to its developers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the next stop for the tool, known as the Land Use Evolution and Impact Assessment Model – or LEAM for short – is the St. Louis metro area. Developed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by urban and regional planning professors Brian Deal and Varkki George, and geography professor Bruce Hannon, LEAM was designed to aid planners, policymakers and others in understanding the future consequences of plans, policies and decisions.

"We’re looking for ‘drivers’ of change – what causes things in a community to change," Deal said. "Most other models work on trends analyses. We’re trying to get at underlying causal mechanisms for change. Because we do it this way, we’re able to run scenarios for different policy choices."

In other words, the model allows the researchers to consider "what ifs," Deal said. "What if we change something – for instance, traffic patterns, infrastructure or utilities?"

Once data are gathered from a variety of sources and the model run on the university’s supercomputer, all kinds of scenarios can be played out. These scenarios describe how land-use patterns change over time and the social, environmental and economic impacts of these changes. This information is being used by planners and community leaders in the Peoria region to make more informed decisions.

Without sound planning, community development policies can take shape in ad-hoc, patchwork fashion, often with unintended consequences that are difficult, if not impossible, to undo. LEAM, in effect, helps planners and others look before they leap. For example, well before the bulldozers move in, policymakers can determine the impact a new housing or commercial development will have on city services, natural resources or wildlife habitats now and in the future. LEAM also succeeds by providing a place at the planning table for constituents who may not have been invited to participate before, even though they have a clear stake in the outcome. For example, Deal said, "some policies, like road construction, have consequences for schools, but in Peoria, school districts were not involved in the decision-making process in the past."

LEAM originally was developed with support from a National Science Foundation grant in 1999. A pilot test of its capabilities was conducted in Kane County, a fast-growing area northwest of Chicago. The first full-scale use of the model was in the Peoria area, with assistance from state agencies that make up the Governor’s Balanced Growth Cabinet. Work in the St. Louis metro east area – on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River – began recently; researchers hope soon to receive the green light from the Metro west side to move forward with an integrated model for the entire region.

More information on LEAM is available on the Web.