This seminar introduces Complex Systems Theory and geo-simulation as conceptual and methodological frameworks adapted to the study of complex, adaptive geographic and urban systems. Geo-simulation is a rapidly growing field of scientific investigation to study coupled natural/human systems in which human activities interact with natural landscape components, raising complex issues of environmental resource management. Derived from Complex Systems Theory and GIScience, it involves the use of individually-based spatially-explicit simulation models, namely cellular automata and agent-based models. In this seminar, Prof. Liu will present the concept of cellular automata and its applications in urban modelling both in Australia and China contexts. It demonstrates that CA models are powerful tools to understand the spatial and temporal processes of urban systems as well as how human activities affect the environments over which they occur.