Integrated model framework to simulate sustainability of human settlements

The concept of sustainable development is now valued to be fundamental to most issues concerning human activities for development. As sustainable development requires balancing conflicting requirements, rational decision making is necessary to achieve sustainability. Simulation models to assess and forecast sustainability can aid rational decision making. In the context of human settlements, human-nature interactions need to be considered in an integrated manner to build appropriate simulation models. The integrated model framework proposed here serves as a base for such simulation models. The model framework is based on the premise that a community's attitude and its living environment determine human settlement sustainability. A generic model design comprising fundamental components of the proposed sustainability assessment and forecasting model framework is also presented in this paper. Discussion on relevant implementation issues including a simulation system and key limitations of the framework are also presented. This framework can be adopted for development and implementation of a simulation system for sustainability assessment and forecasting studies.