New Working Paper: Agent-Based Models for Geographical Systems: A Review

Its been a while since we published a working paper, especially a CASA one, but this has now changed with the release of a new one entitled "Agent-Based Models for Geographical Systems: A Review." In the paper Alison Heppenstall, Nick Malleson, Ed Manley, Jiaqi Ge, Michael Batty and myself reflect back on the agent-based modeling and their use in geographical systems. 

In the paper we revisit challenges that we first explored back in 2008 (which an earlier version was another CASA working paper) and progress that has been made to address them. We then  explore new challenges within the field of agent-based models especially in light of new new (big) data along with new opportunities (such as data assimilation). If you want to find out more about the paper, below is the abstract and a ling to the paper.

Abstract:

This paper charts the progress made since agent-based models (ABMs) of geographical systems emerged from more aggregative approaches to spatial modeling in the early 1990s. We first set the context by noting that ABM explicitly represent the spatial system by individual objects, usually people in the social science domain, with behaviors that we simulate here mainly as decisions about location and movement. Key issues pertaining to the way in which temporal dynamics characterize these models are noted and we then pick up the challenges from the review of this field conducted by Crooks, et al. (2008) some 12 years ago which was also published as a CASA working paper. We then define key issues from this past review as pertaining to a series of questions involving: the rationale for modeling; the way in which theory guides models and vice versa; how models can be compared; questions of model replication,experiment, verification and validation; how dynamics are incorporated in models; how agent behaviors can be simulated; how such ABMs are communicated and disseminated; and finally the data challenges that still dominate the field. This takes us to the current challenges emerging from this discussion. Big data, the way it is generated, and its relevance for ABM is explored with some important caveats as to the relevance of such data for these models, the way these models might be integrated with one another and with different genera of models are noted, while new ways of testing such models through ensemble forecasting and data assimilation are described. The notion about how we model human behaviors through agents learning in complex environment is presented and this then suggests that ABM still have enormous promise for effective simulations of how spatial systems evolve and change.

Full Reference:

Heppenstall, A., Crooks, A.T., Malleson, N., Manley, E., Ge J. and Batty, M. (2019), Agent-Based Models for Geographical Systems: A Review. Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (University College London): Working Paper 214, London, England. (pdf)