Products
RIKS develops computer based systems that support planners. These are user friendly tools, used as a spatial decision support system (SDSS) by strategic planners from the metropolitan to international scales in a wide range of regions and countries. Our systems are based on a solid scientific foundation and we continuously do research to improve our products and expand our modeling toolbox.
The core of our products is the Geonamica software environment, which RIKS has developed in house. It is the engine that has been driving our applications for almost 20 years now. This software environment is particularly suited to build integrated systems that include spatial and dynamic models. As such it can very well be applied to model complex processes like land use changes.
Our main product is Metronamica, designed for urban and regional planning. It comprises a dynamic land use model, a socio-economic model, a transport and a regional migration model that can be used for the analysis of different socio-economic scenarios like population growth or an increase in consumer purchasig power and the assessment of alternative policy options like restrictive zoning plans or per-kilometer car levies.
Sometimes spatial problems are too complex to be captured by a standard SDSS. In these cases we develop tailor made systems in close collaboration with our users that suit their context better. We have made systems that focus on coastal zone management, ecosystems services, river basin management and economic and demographic planning.
In addition to our spatial decision support systems we have developed a number of tools that assist in the process of spatial planning. For the problem definition phase of the policy development process we have Topic. This tool helps to structure the information, define the problem and structure the process. For the evaluation of the results we developed the Map Comparison Kit, which helps in the analysis of series of output maps.