Urban Dynamics And Economics Research Group (UDERG)

Background

The research fields of the Urban Dynamics and Economics Research Group (UDERG), led by Dr. Dani Broitman, are urban and regional economics using urban dynamics modeling tools. The research group is interested in the complex relations between economic systems, social arrangements and cities. In particular, the systematic examination of feedback effects and interactions between economic incentives, regulatory systems and the spatial dynamics of the built environment is a major intellectual challenge.  An in depth understanding of these interactions is interesting on a theoretical level.

However, considering that more than half of the world’s population is currently living in cities and the high growth rates predicted for urban areas, the expected joint development of these systems is of a practical and immediate concern. In particular, this is true in a small and crowded country such as Israel, where geo-political and ethnic issues exacerbate urban and land-use dilemmas. Thus, the spatial evolution of urban areas and their characteristics will closely influence many of the future trends expected in socio-economic systems at national and regional levels. Therefore, the research group focuses its efforts at the intersection of urban economic models with tools and techniques borrowed from other disciplines such as complexity theory, agent-based models and quantitative geographic analysis.

Research focus

• Influence of of real-estate and land values dynamics on future urban spatial configuration.
• Using big data and machine learning to forecast future residential demand.
• Dynamics of urban ecosystem services.
• Uncertainties and robustness planning future land uses.
• Socio-economic optimization of runoff management in urban/rural watersheds.
• Agent-based models applied to urban and regional economics.
• Social processes in dynamic urban settings