Integration of principal components analysis and cellular automata for spatial decisionmaking and urban simulation

This paper discusses the issues about the correlation of spatial variables during spatial decisionmaking using multicriteria evaluation (MCE) and cellular automata (CA). The correlation of spatial variables can cause the malfunction of MCE. In urban simulation, spatial factors often exhibit a high degree of correlation which is considered as an undesirable property for MCE. This study uses principal components analysis (PCA) to remove data redundancy among a large set of spatial variables and determine 'ideal points' for land development. PCA is integrated with cellular automata and geographical information systems (GIS) for the simulation of idealized urban forms for planning purposes.