CRGP and the Ministry of Economic Development in Qatar have reached an agreement on a joint research project. The purpose of the project is to develop a multi-scale 4D/GIS model to simulate, assess, and compare the land, energy, water and resource use impacts of different development scenarios for a new economic trade zone being developed in Doha. The Qatar Economic Zone will be a model of sustainable development for the region and is being heralded within the Middle East as the next Dubai. The zone will have advanced buildings, a port, an international airport, an LRT system, and all urban infrastructures including water, power, telecom, transportation.

The Stanford team will assess historical patterns urban growth using satellite imagery and develop an interdisciplinary 4D/GIS model of the coming together of all the building and infrastructure components in the zone over the 10 year build-out period. The model will serve as an integrated planning and decision support tool for the project sponsor to weigh trade-offs between various development sequences and configurations. Primary outputs of the model, which will change dynamically as the model runs, will include such things as demand for concrete, steel, labor, energy, water, workers, capital expenditure, and contribution to GDP.

The modeling approach is one that has been applied by building contractors for almost 15 years to simulate construction sequences at the level of the individual building, but it has not been applied at the level of the city or region, nor has it been linked to the kinds of primary outputs noted above.

The project offers a new holistic approach to large-scale urban planning that should help to maximize sustainability, minimize risk and attract investment.

The results of the model-based analysis will be presented in interactive workshops with the QEZ team and Stanford researchers.

Stanford University is uniquely qualified to develop this tool including the visualization and analysis methods. The team is being led by Dr. Martin Fischer, Dr. Karen Seto, and Dr. Ryan Orr.

Dr. Fischer has directed research and application of 4D models since 1993 on many different types of projects around the world. He is the recognized world leader in this area.

Dr. Orr has directed research on the life-cycle sustainability of large, complex, capital-intensive infrastructure investment projects and teaches Global Project Finance.

Dr. Seto has pioneered new methods for the analysis of large-scale urban growth and land use and has related projects underway in Bangalore, India, and the Pearl River Delta, China.

Posted by rjorr at June 1, 2007 4:33 PM