Towards a unified regional vision: simulation to foster cross-municipal cooperation and planning

Simulation modeling is an effective tool that enables knowledge-based approaches to support decision-making for complex problems.Agent-based modeling (ABM) simulation is particularly powerful in the visualization of macro-outcomes of individual and group-specific behaviour, for example in urban and regional planning.However, the adoption of ABM in practice often overlooks its capabilities.Ineffective planning sets sparsely populated remote regions to risk of suffering from long-term consequences, such as population decline.In these settings, it is important to bring municipalities into a dialogue to share the advantages of common planning at a regional scale for their mutual advancement.This study aims to explore the potential of applying ABM and its visual capabilities to support regionwide planning.For this purpose, we develop a model of accessibility of a Swedish region to enhance awareness of common problems with regional accessibility and lift the planning focus from a local scale to a regional one.The model in this paper draws on empirical data from interactions with planners in a region of six municipalities with varying degrees of urbanization in a sparsely populated remote area in Sweden.The model visualizes the dynamic changes in accessibility and demonstrates how destination clustering outplays on a higher system level usually overlooked in planning.The simulation of the case shows that aggravated agglomeration effects will prevent municipalities from developing their centers if they do not consider the opportunities in neighbouring areas within the same region.The paper contributes insights that stimulate the adoption of simulation in complex domains, such as public planning that seeks to align local and regional perspectives.