---
id: people/paul-waddell
about:
  label: Paul Waddell
  description: >-
    Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley who led the
    development of UrbanSim, a land-use model used by regional planners.
  tags:
    - urban simulation
    - land use
    - transport
person:
  affiliation: 'University of California, Berkeley'
  role: urban planner and modeller
  homepage: 'https://ced.berkeley.edu/ced/faculty-staff/paul-waddell'
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: Paul Waddell (UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design)
      url: 'https://ced.berkeley.edu/ced/faculty-staff/paul-waddell'
  created: '2026-11-02'
  reviewed: '2026-11-02'
  reviewed_by: 'Claude, from the sources listed'
  status: draft
---
Paul Waddell teaches and does research at Berkeley, where he is now emeritus, on modelling and planning for land use and housing, transport and the environment.[^1] He holds a PhD in political economy from the University of Texas at Dallas, and began his career as a regional planner with the North Central Texas Council of Governments.[^1]

He led the development of the [UrbanSim](/engines/urbansim/) model of urban development.[^1] Metropolitan planning organisations and other agencies use it for operational planning in US regions including Detroit, Houston and Seattle, and in cities in Europe, Asia and Africa.[^1] His research assesses how land-use regulations and transport investments affect real-estate development and prices, travel, emissions and resource use, and how to involve the public in complex policy choices.[^1] He describes cities as complex spatial political economies shaped by the choices of their people and organisations.[^1]