Transportation and spatial development: An overview and a future direction

• A comprehensive review of urban land use and transport interaction studies.
• Insights into two aspects of the future direction of LUTI studies.
• One direction is more flexible, more complex, and involves more intensive modeling.
• The other direction involves simplified modeling in a global scale application.
• Contribution to the sustainability science through co-evolution of LUTI studies.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of urban land use and transport interaction (LUTI) studies over the last five decades and discusses future directions of LUTI studies. We found that the current LUTI models perform well in practical applications with regard to urban policy and infrastructure planning. However, there is concern that a vast fragmented array of models may have limitations in coping with emerging practical requirements, particularly as the analytical requirements for urban policies concerned with sustainability are growing wider and deeper. This paper provides insight into the two viable directions of LUTI studies: one is more flexible and complex, and involves intensive modeling at the local scale; the other involves simplified modeling at regional, national, and global scales. The co-evolution of these two approaches is expected to contribute to sustainability science. By cross referencing these two distinct approaches a balance can be found between the details of reality and the abstraction of theory thus increasing knowledge within the field. This would further enhance the potential of LUTI studies as urban environments become more dynamic and unpredictable.