The Urban Growth and Change Research Group in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo is supervised by Professor Dawn Parker. The interdisciplinary team of doctoral, masters, and undergraduate students is developing agent-based residential models that simulate housing market, land use and transportation behaviour in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. By accounting for the actions of buyers, sellers, developers, policymakers, and planners, the group aims to identify emergent macro-scale patterns in urban form and transportation networks.
Projects
The group is currently working on two SSHRC-funded projects:
WARM project: Urban intensification vs. suburban flight: An integrated residential land-use and transportation model to evaluate residential land-market form and function.
Partnership Development Grant (PDG): Unpacking the causal relationships between light rail transit and core-area intensification.
Research updates
The group held a successful research symposium on November 22, 2016. Event video, research summaries and posters can be found here: Waterloo urban growth and change fall 2016 research symposium.
Jason Neudorf, a former master's student, looked at access to employment in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Visit the link to experience an interactive version of the analysis, and learn more about the research.
Emma Defields, a former master's student, surveyed residents of the Kitchener-Waterloo area on their yard and home preferences, moving plans, and landscape styling. Visit the link to learn more about the research.
Research group members
To learn more about our research group members, visit our people page.
Contact us
If you have any questions about our research, please feel free to contact Dr. Dawn Parker at dcparker@uwaterloo.ca