Empresarial An Agent-Based Model to Simulate Planning Policies Addressed to Industrial Estates

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to present the main steps undertaken in a study focused on the industrial estates planning. The study was based on an agent-based model, using the firms as agents that assess the industrial estates’ attractiveness located in the Quadrilátero, designation given to the network composed by the municipalities of Barcelos, Braga, Guimarães and Vila Nova de Famalicão. The simulation was based on three scenarios and four hypotheses, which were used to assess the impact that different policies can have in the industrial estates’ attractiveness. The policies simulated are distinguished by the type of intervention proposed and by the level of local coordination involved in the implementation process. Results show that coordinated qualification of the industrial estates is the most efficient policy. It was in this scenario that more industrial estates became attractive, more firms were relocated and more vacant plots were occupied. On the other hand, the simulated policies have produced different impacts at the municipal scale, reflecting the different locative conditions experienced by the estates. The simulation also showed that the promotion of diffused and unqualified industrial estates is an inefficient policy to attract firms. This conclusion highlights the fact that municipal policies addressed to the industrial estates in the last decades are not absent of criticism.