California, with its rapid growth and myriad environmental and social problems, is the field site for the Center for Urban Behavior and the Environment. 

CUBE currently has four main areas of research: 1) urban growth analysis using our rule-based land use allocation model UPlan, 2) basic and applied research using the MEPLAN urban economic model on the Sacramento region, 3) the review and critique of travel models and urban models for private and public clients, and 4. the application of the PECAS model to all of California. 

UPLAN: CUBE's current applied research focus is on the further development and implementation of the UPlan urban growth model. UPlan is a user-driven expert decision-rule model and has been implemented in California, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Utah. Current efforts are to run UPlan on the entire state of California. The Merced Co. Assoc. of Governments is using UPlan in a USEPA/Caltrans national demonstration project to engage in environmental planning as part of a regional transportation plan. Now, the eight San Joaquin Valley counties are using UPlan in their Blueprint project. 

To learn more about UPlan, click the following link to an online PowerPoint presentation (please be patient, as each slide takes a few seconds to load into the frame, if you don't have high bandwidth). This show describes UPlan's functions and shows its application in the Sacramento region. 

The PECAS study for Caltrans web site is here:

PECAS papers are on this site: www.ucalgary.ca/~jabraham/Papers/index.html