More than half a century has passed since the first use of models in urban planning. Most urban planners have agreed on using models either to simplify complicated systems or to make simulations of such systems in order to predict their future. There is, however, disagreement on how far such simplifications and simulations have worked toward the planners’ goals and objectives. In this paper, through historical analysis, we placed the model-theory interaction into the broader scope of scientific modeling to develop guidelines applicable to the narrow field of urban modeling. Here, we developed an argument that models’ applicability and meaningfulness in urban planning are primarily dependent on planning theories, that is, models and theories should move parallel to achieve all the functions and capabilities claimed by models. Thus, an interactive process shapes the model as the mediator between the theory and the phenomenon: (a) the theory explains an abstract phenomenon, (b) the model provides an understanding of that phenomenon, and (c) the original abstract explanation is revisited and made more practical. This evolutionary process is our view of the “mediator model,” that is, a new definition of the urban model.

自从第一次在城市规划中使用模型以来，已经过去了半个多世纪。大多数城市规划者都同意使用模型来简化复杂的系统或对此类系统进行模拟以预测其未来。然而，对于这种简化和模拟在多大程度上实现了规划者的目标和目标，存在分歧。在本文中，通过历史分析，我们将模型-理论相互作用置于更广泛的科学建模范围内，以制定适用于城市建模这一狭窄领域的指导方针。在这里，我们提出了一个论点，即模型在城市规划中的适用性和意义主要取决于规划理论，即模型和理论应该平行移动以实现模型所声称的所有功能和能力。因此，一个交互过程将模型塑造为理论和现象之间的中介：(a) 理论解释了一个抽象现象，(b) 模型提供了对该现象的理解，以及 (c) 重新审视并做出了最初的抽象解释更实用。这个演化过程就是我们对“中介模式”的看法，即对城市模式的新定义。