Modelling transport provision in a polycentric mega city region

The aim of this paper is to present a model of interaction between transport and land use which aims at endogenously integrates the provision of transportation infrastructure and its effects on land use, with a long term perspective (Lowry, 1964, Wegener, 2004, Levinson, 2011, Bretagnolle, 2014, Mimeur et al., 2015). LUTECIA (Land Use, Transport, Evaluation of Cooperation, Infrastructure provision and Agglomeration effects) model puts emphasis on multiscale processes of urban growth, in the context of the emergence of Mega-City Regions (MCR, Hall & Pain, 2006). It allows us, in this exploratory phase, to characterize via simulation the conditions of development of polycentric metropolises. Nevertheless, we argue that such approaches are all the more necessary that we are in a period of multiple transitions that classical modelling tools have difficulty to capture.