Modeling land use interaction using linguistic variables

One of the main factors of land use change (LUC) modeling is the land use intersection (LUI) or neighborhood effect, which is normally modeled using cellular automata (CA) concept. The effects of LUI over distance are represented in terms of CA transition rules. In this paper, a new model for LUI process is developed that makes use of expert knowledge to define the transition rules. In this model, the region of influence is defined using a new radial structure; the transition rules are described by expert knowledge and spatial metrics in the form of linguistic variables; and finally, the neighborhood effect is classified into three groups of compactness, dependency and incompatibility. The model is implemented and evaluated using the data of Borkhar and Meymeh township, in Esfahan, Iran, for the two periods of 1986–1998 and 1998–2005. The results show that the model and its related concept are performing rather well.