The Role of Agent Based Modelling for Fulfilling Pitfalls of Urban Planning Process: Challenges and Opportunities in the Context of Sri Lanka

Abstract

After 30 years long ethnic crisis, Sri Lanka was recognized as a place for development due to its inherent potentials as an island nation. Currently, Colombo and main city centers are experiencing the development boom while the world has recognized countries’ potentials of development in different ways. At the same time country is investigating the plausibility of adopting smart urban planning solutions. Since Urban Planning is a broader discipline, narrowing down to physical urban planning factors and process of the same is complex in its nature. It could be dealt with only rationalize thinking and some general knowledge and scientific aspects of planning. World is yearning for fast and smart urbanization. Thus urban planning paradigm is trying to link with other supportive paradigms such as technology, software, social science, etc. With that, new planning techniques and technologies are being invented and currently used to an affective urban planning process. As such Space Syntax, Neural network, Cellular Automata (CA) model and Agent Based Model (ABM) play a major role in that aspect. Since 1970 ABM has been used for urban planning process in multifarious stages and for multitude of purposes. This paper mainly concentrates on the ABM as an urban planning tool and its role in the urban planning process in the Sri Lanka. Particularly to uplift the planning process and as tool of fulfilling pitfall of the process.