Urban Growth and Change Research Group

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 Nov. 22nd, 2016. Event video, research summaries and posters can be found here: Waterloo Urban Growth and Change Fall 2016 Research Symposium

Jason Neudorf, a former Masters student, looked at access to employment in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Follow the link to experience an interactive version of the analysis, and learn more about the research.

Emma Defields, a former Masters student, surveyed residents of the Kitchener-Waterloo area on their yard and home preferences, moving plans, and landscape styling. Follow the link to learn more about the research.

Research group members

To learn more about our research group members, click here.

Contact us

If you have any questions about our research, please feel free to contact Dr. Dawn Parker at dcparker [at] uwaterloo.ca