Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Repasts Raster GIS and Sugar Scape models

Following on from Christians ‘How to create a .pgm file from an .ascii file’ post I thought it would be useful to provide some models that show how this type of information can be loaded into Repast. Repast provides two models that use images that to create the basis of artificial worlds: the Sugar Scape model and a GIS Model (based on Raster data).

The GIS Model (top image), uses the RasterSpace class and reads in a .txt file (e.g. an .ascii file that can be outputted from ESRI ArcGIS. While the Sugar Scape Model (bottom image) reads in a .pgm file to great a Object2Dtorus space

The original source code for both models can be accessed through the RepastJ download. Alternatively, one can run the Sugar Scape or GIS Model by clicking these links (sorry these models will only run on a windows operating system)

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Talks

Life has been quite hectic for the last couple of weeks. We just come back from Chicago where we attended the Repast Training workshop which introduced us to Repast symphony (which looked quite cool) along with both presenting our work at the Agent 2006 Conference. I gave a paper titled “Exploring Cities Using Agent-based Models and GIS” and Christian’s paper was called “Using Repast to Develop a Prototype Agent-based Pedestrian Evacuation Model.” These papers will be available for download from the agent 2006 website soon.


This week Christian and I are off to Oxford to present at a workshop called: Complexity and Dynamics: Volatility & Stability in City & Regional Systems, which is part of the European Conference on Complex Systems 2006. The workshop focuses on urban dynamics, along with volatility and stability in city and regional systems. Our paper is entitled “From Pedestrians to Cities: Exploring Urban Systems through Agent-Based Modelling”

PLAN C

PLAN C: Planning with Large Agent-Networks against Catastrophes

New York University Bioinformatics group are using Repast to develop a agent based model simulation framework able to simulate the emergency responses in urban settings entitled PlanC. Catastrophic scenarios simulated include bomb explosion, the spread of small pox and food poisoning. The tool is intended to devise plans (such as time to recovery) for such scenarios based on the modelling of a large number of individual agents. The Models incorporate GIS data with agent based modelling (utilizing Repast)


Further reading/references such as the study of food poisoning in Brazil, or a hypothetical Sarin attack within Manhattan can be seen on the project website, along with a software demo. The site also claims the software will be available soon.