Simulation of land use changes using cellular automata and artificial neural network

Abstract

This paper presents a method integrating artificial neural network (ANN) in cellular automata (CA) to simulate land use changes in Luxembourg and the areas adjacent to its borders. The ANN is used as a base of CA model transition rule. The proposed method shows promising results for prediction of land use over time. The ANN is validated using cross-validation technique and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and compared with logit model and a support vector machine approach. The application described in this paper highlights the interest of integrating ANNs in CA based model for land use dynamic simulation.Artificial neural network; Cellular automata; Modelling; Land use changes; Spatial planning and dynamics