RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION BY HILL-CLIMBING AGENTS ON THE POTENTIAL LANDSCAPE
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Ethnic residential segregation is common in urban areas and is especially pronounced in metropolitan areas of the US. Many factors contribute to these residential patterns. The potential role of ethnic preferences has received increasing attention in recent years, but the development of theoretical models has been limited in many respects. This study seeks to extend the understanding of the possible role of ethnic preferences by investigating an agent-based model that introduces the concept of spatial potential the desirability of particular spatial locations as a competing preference. The distribution of spatial potential is varied from convex to concave distributions on the city landscape to investigate the resulting impact on patterns of segregation. Three types of zones are identified in the model city, namely the minority ghetto, the majority ring, and the integrated ring. The present model is considered to be an example of a discrete dynamic system that is characterized by its random move condition and its definition on the grid system. Insights from analytic approaches are explored in the context of the new dynamics to gain a better understanding of the emergent patterns of the system.
