Geographical Simulation and Optimization Systems(GeoSOS)

The Geographical Simulation and Optimization System (GeoSOS) is proposed by Prof. Xia Li and developed by his team. He used to work in Sun Yat-sen University, but now at East China Normal University in China. GeoSOS integrates cellular automata (CA), agent-based models (ABMs), and swarm intelligence models (SIMs) for solving geographical processes simulation and complex spatial optimization problems, such as land use change, urban growth, natural protection areas zoning and facilities sitting. In the last 4 years, GeoSOS has been downloaded over 5700 times by users from more than 61 countries/regions all over the world.

GeoSOS software suite now includes: stand-alone GeoSOS software, and GeoSOS for ArcGIS. 
Stand-alone GeoSOS software is designed in an Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm, and implemented by using the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 and C#. GeoSOS for ArcGIS is an ArcMap Add-In software runs in ArcGIS for Desktop 10.X platform.(Download free, latest version of GeoSOS software suite here).

As a bottom-up approach, GeoSOS consists of three major integrated components, cellular automata (CA), multi-agent systems (MAS), and swarm intelligence (SI). This system is equipped with common CA algorithms, such as MCE-CA, logistic-CA, PCA-CA, ANN-CA, and Decision-tree-CA. It also provides spatial optimization algorithms, such as facility-sitting, path-finding, and area optimization, by modifying ant algorithms.

The integration of CA with MAS allows the system to address some social and human factors for handling more complex simulation tasks. Another novelty of this proposed system is its capability of coupling simulation models with optimization models. This proposed system can provide a new kind of functionality, which is complementary to that of existing GIS. GeoSOS can be used to simulate, predict, and optimize a variety of geographical phenomena, such as land development, land use changes, landscape and ecological evolution.

Related Publications (Updated to October 2017)

Landscape and Urban Planning: A future land use simulation model (FLUS) for simulating multiple land use scenarios by coupling human and natural effects     (Download Here)