where a is the dispersion parameter that is determined on the basis of transition rules. It is
the strength of a cell for a particular use. The higher the value of a, the more stringent the
site selection process or the lower the probability that the cell will be used for that type.
The probability function assigns a transition probability value of 1 to the highest score in
the iteration and assigns a value of 0 when the score is 0. This approach has been used
earlier by Wu [19] to study urban development in Guangzhou, China. However, Wu and
many other researchers used CA models for allocations to one use only. The present
approach can be considered as an extension of the approach used by Wu as it considers
allocations for multiple uses which requires computation of probabilities of transitionamong different states in a spatially dependent manner and addresses competition between
different uses in the allocation process.