Case Study: Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG)

About

Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) brings together all the region’s governments to solve regional challenges. There are around 4.8 million people living in the seven counties as of 2020.

Need

SEMCOG wanted to work at smaller grid- or parcel-based geographies and to have more flexibility in aggregating the results. They were interested in having a discrete-choice, behavioral model that could analyze consumer choice more accurately. Additionally, SEMCOG had data which could not fully be utilized without adopting the UrbanSim model, but once the data was cleaned it could easily be fed into the UrbanSim model.

Solutions

SEMCOG’s 2045 forecast used 1.8 million land parcels to simulate location patterns of future population and jobs and to model residential and nonresidential development as demands shifted over time. UrbanSim’s parcel-based model, introduced more variables and segmentation. The SEMCOG team has continued to receive positive feedback, in turn giving more credibility to the forecast and streamlining the adoption process