Haiti: Natural Disaster and Crowdsourcing

Supporting material: 

Download model
Download source code and data (requires MASON to Run)

Read more about default parameters and parameter sensitivity tests here.

Animations of Simulation Outcomes 

The spread of information and agent movement (red dot) around one center (blue dot):



The spread of information and agent movement (red dot) around one center (blue dot):

how density around the center increases over time based on the movie above.

The movie below shows the spread of information and agent movement (red dot) in a 6 by 8km area of Port-au-Prince.

Background Papers

Crooks, A.T. and Wise, S. (2013), GIS and Agent-Based models for Humanitarian Assistance, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 41: 100-111. (pdf)

Crooks, A. T., and Wise, S. (2012), Modeling the Consequences of Natural Disasters through Crowdsourcing, Volunteered Geographical Information and Multi-Agent Systems: Haiti as Test Case, HFM-201 Specialists Meeting on Social Media: Risks and Opportunities In Military Applications, 16th - 18th April 2012, in Tallinn, Estonia. (Presentation)

Crooks, A. T. and Wise, S. (2011), Modelling the Humanitarian Relief through Crowdsourcing, Volunteered Geographical Information and Agent-based Modelling: A test Case - Haiti, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Geocomputation, University College London, London, England, pp 183-187. (pdf) 

Parameters

Default Parameters

Variable Name	Default Value
Maximum Density	10 agents per tile
Initial Food per Center	20
Units of Energy per Food	500
Energy to Stay	1.5
Energy to Walk (Paved)	5.0
Energy to Walk (Unpaved)	6.0

Parameter Sweep

The following images present a visualization of the results of a parameter sweep with a 1-tick update interval. 

The following table presents the results from which the images above are drawn: a sweep over the agent activity costs and update interval. The density, food amounts, and units of energy per food were held constant, as were the center locations.

Update Interval	Energy to Stay	Energy to Walk Paved	Energy to Walk Unpaved	Ratio of Deaths	Norm. Energy Left in System	Ratio of Food Left in System
1	0.15	0.5	0.6	0.00000	1513.19	0.25
1	0.15	0.5	6	0.00001	1441.69	0.24
1	0.15	0.5	20	0.02985	1278.52	0.24
1	0.15	5	0.6	0.00000	1498.51	0.25
1	0.15	5	6	0.00000	1437.26	0.25
1	0.15	5	20	0.02429	1306.61	0.25
1	0.15	15	0.6	0.00000	1508.17	0.24
1	0.15	15	6	0.00000	1490.87	0.24
1	0.15	15	20	0.00649	1448.58	0.23
1	1.5	0.5	0.6	0.00000	861.28	0.24
1	1.5	0.5	6	0.00835	790.89	0.25
1	1.5	0.5	20	0.10961	651.20	0.25
1	1.5	5	0.6	0.00000	844.58	0.23
1	1.5	5	6	0.00133	792.40	0.24
1	1.5	5	20	0.05583	690.02	0.24
1	1.5	15	0.6	0.00002	839.39	0.23
1	1.5	15	6	0.00035	824.63	0.25
1	1.5	15	20	0.02047	792.52	0.24
1	5	0.5	0.6	0.95796	6.66	0.00
1	5	0.5	6	0.99996	0.02	0.11
1	5	0.5	20	0.99998	0.01	0.02
1	5	5	0.6	0.98805	1.59	0.00
1	5	5	6	0.99997	0.02	0.13
1	5	5	20	0.99998	0.01	0.01
1	5	15	0.6	0.99810	0.24	0.00
1	5	15	6	0.99997	0.02	0.15
1	5	15	20	0.99998	0.01	0.03
5	0.15	0.5	0.6	0.00000	1513.20	0.24
5	0.15	0.5	6	0.00001	1442.14	0.26
5	0.15	0.5	20	0.03407	1278.71	0.24
5	0.15	5	0.6	0.00000	1498.42	0.24
5	0.15	5	6	0.00000	1436.62	0.24
5	0.15	5	20	0.02536	1304.60	0.25
5	0.15	15	0.6	0.00000	1508.00	0.24
5	0.15	15	6	0.00000	1490.76	0.25
5	0.15	15	20	0.00760	1448.15	0.24
5	1.5	0.5	0.6	0.00000	861.35	0.24
5	1.5	0.5	6	0.00797	791.14	0.24
5	1.5	0.5	20	0.10882	651.93	0.24
5	1.5	5	0.6	0.00000	844.55	0.24
5	1.5	5	6	0.00145	792.36	0.23
5	1.5	5	20	0.05657	689.80	0.25
5	1.5	15	0.6	0.00002	839.46	0.24
5	1.5	15	6	0.00040	824.62	0.24
5	1.5	15	20	0.02113	792.53	0.24
5	5	0.5	0.6	0.95917	6.10	0.00
5	5	0.5	6	0.99996	0.02	0.10
5	5	0.5	20	0.99998	0.01	0.01
5	5	5	0.6	0.98752	1.63	0.00
5	5	5	6	0.99997	0.02	0.12
5	5	5	20	0.99998	0.01	0.02
5	5	15	0.6	0.99814	0.23	0.00
5	5	15	6	0.99997	0.02	0.15
5	5	15	20	0.99998	0.01	0.01
10	0.15	0.5	0.6	0.00000	1513.24	0.24
10	0.15	0.5	6	0.00002	1441.80	0.23
10	0.15	0.5	20	0.03652	1276.27	0.24
10	0.15	5	0.6	0.00000	1498.33	0.24
10	0.15	5	6	0.00000	1435.88	0.24
10	0.15	5	20	0.02650	1300.86	0.24
10	0.15	15	0.6	0.00000	1507.88	0.25
10	0.15	15	6	0.00000	1490.34	0.24
10	0.15	15	20	0.00788	1447.15	0.24
10	1.5	0.5	0.6	0.00000	861.25	0.24
10	1.5	0.5	6	0.00796	790.92	0.24
10	1.5	0.5	20	0.11099	649.76	0.24
10	1.5	5	0.6	0.00000	844.65	0.24
10	1.5	5	6	0.00156	792.27	0.25
10	1.5	5	20	0.05765	687.11	0.23
10	1.5	15	0.6	0.00002	839.38	0.24
10	1.5	15	6	0.00039	824.49	0.24
10	1.5	15	20	0.02021	792.65	0.25
10	5	0.5	0.6	0.95945	5.93	0.00
10	5	0.5	6	0.99995	0.02	0.09
10	5	0.5	20	0.99998	0.01	0.02
10	5	5	0.6	0.98757	1.63	0.00
10	5	5	6	0.99997	0.02	0.14
10	5	5	20	0.99998	0.01	0.03
10	5	15	0.6	0.99802	0.24	0.00
10	5	15	6	0.99997	0.02	0.13
10	5	15	20	0.99998	0.01	0.03