Urban Modeling as Storytelling: Using Simulation Models as a Narrative

This paper examines the distinctions between empirical and simulation models using the metaphors of argument and narrative. It argues that all argumentation is contextualized within a narrative that is either inferred or communicated. It provides another semantic structure for urban models that applies elements of systems-dynamic method to construct ‘stories' of the past and possible futures of communities in a watershed in southern Arizona. By constructing such narratives this paper demonstrates how computer-based urban models can ‘tell a story’.