Model Replication via OpenABM

The OpenABM website is a great resource for agent-based modelers, I often suggest to my students to visit the site to see the range of possibilities to which agent-based models can be used for.

Recently it was announced that the winner of CoMSES Net Model Recovery and Replication Drive was Torsten Hagerstrand's 1965 Spatial Innovation Diffusion Model. To quote from the announcement it is the "Earliest known calibrated and validated simulation with implicit "agent based" methodology." Sean Bergin replicated the model and provides a great ODD documentation of the model. More  details can be found here.

The OpenABM site has many models which one can view, download and experiment with, including a replication of the Artificial Anasazi model of Axtell et al., (2002) by  Marco Janssen.

USGIF 2012 Achievement Award for Academic Research

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), has just awarded our team the 2012 USGIF Achievement Award for Academic Research for our pioneering work on harvesting geospatial intelligence from social media. This pioneering work has led to the new computational paradigm of GeoSocial Analysis, providing a new understanding of sociocultural dynamics in space and the links among various locations. Below is the movie from the awards ceremony at the GEOINT 2012 Symposium.

Also our work has recently been been featured in the the USGIF Trajectory Magazine.  The first article entitled "OSINT Goes Social: Social media presents new opportunities and challenges for deriving open source intelligence" by Jim Hodges, discusses the potential of social media for open source intelligence.

In the second article entitled "Visualizing the Invisible" by Kristin Quinn discuses how our pioneering work is leading to a new approach to harvesting GEOINT.

Call for Papers: Agent-Based Models of Geographical Systems

Call for Papers: Agent-Based Models of Geographical Systems
IGU Leeds, Applied GIS and Spatial Modelling: 29 May – 2 June 2013

The use of agent-based models is now becoming widespread within the social sciences. With the maturity of these methodologies, there has been an accompanying development in applications for exploring a wide range of geographical, and more broadly, social sciences problems facing society.

The aim of this session is to bring together researchers who are using ABM within the context of Applied GIS or Spatial Modelling.  Papers which explore the relationships between ABM and other related techniques such as spatial microsimulation or cellular automata, and their uses within policy frameworks of substantive applications to geographical problems, will be particularly welcome.
Specific areas of interest include the following:

• Linking ABM to GIScience and visualization of models and their outputs
• Work concerned with the calibration, verification and validation of models, or the development of appropriate methods such as genetic algorithms and other geocomputational methods
• The use of models alongside new forms of data such as social media or volunteered geographical information
• Representations of agent behavior within geographical systems
• Substantive applications to geographical problems and policy issues
• Papers which explore the interactions and linkages to other methods and techniques

Important Dates:

• Abstract submission: 250 – 300 words before Dec 01 2012
• Notification: before Feb 01 2013
• Conference dates: May 29th – 2nd June 2013, Leeds, UK.

Organizers:

• Mark Birkin, University of Leeds: m.h.birkin@leeds.ac.uk
• Andrew Evans, University of Leeds: a.j.evans@leeds.ac.uk
• Alison Heppenstall, University of Leeds: a.j.heppenstall@leeds.ac.uk
• Nick Malleson, University of Leeds: n.malleson@leeds.ac.uk

Call for papers: Agent-Based & Cellular Automata Models for Geographical Systems @ AAG 2013

AAG 2013 - CALL FOR PAPERS

SPECIAL SESSION(S): Agent-Based & Cellular Automata Models for Geographical Systems

LOCATION AND DATES
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting
April, 9-13th, 2013, Los Angeles, USA

DESCRIPTION

The use of Agent-based Modeling (ABM) and Cellular Automata (CA) models within geographical systems are starting to mature as methodologies to explore a wide range of geographical and more broadly social sciences problems facing society. The aim of this session(s) is to bring together researchers utilizing agent-based models, CA (and associated methodologies) to discuss topics relating to: theory, technical issues and applications domains of ABM and CA within geographical systems.

We would particularly welcome papers relating to:

• Validation, verification and calibration of Agent-based and CA models
• Hybrid modeling approaches (e.g. utilizing Spatial Interaction, Microsimulation, etc.)
• Handling scale and space issues
• Visualization of agent-based models (along with their outputs)
• Ways of representing behavior within models of geographical systems
• Participatory modeling and simulation
• Applications: Ranging from the micro to macro scale

Please e-mail the abstract and key words with your expression of intent to Andrew Crooks <acrooks2@gmu.edu; by October 15th, 2012. Please make sure that your abstract conforms to the AAG guidelines in relation to title, word limit and key words and as specified at . An abstract should be no more than 250 words that describes the presentation's purpose, methods, and conclusions as well as to include keywords. Full submissions will be given priority over submissions with just a paper title.

ORGANIZERS:
Christopher Bone, Department of Geography, University of Oregon.
Andrew Crooks, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University, USA.
Suzana Dragicevic, Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University.
Alison Heppenstall, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK .
Michael Batty, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London, London, UK.
Amit Patel, School of Public Policy, George Mason University, USA.

TIMELINE:

• October 15th, 2012: Abstract submission and expression of intent to session organizers. E-mail Andrew Crooks by this date if you are interested in being in this session. Please submit an abstract and key words with your expression of intent. Full submissions will be given priority over submissions with just a paper title.
• October 18th, 2012: Session finalization. Session organizers determine session order and content and notify authors.
• October 20th, 2012: Final abstract submission to AAG, via www.aag.org. All participants must register individually via this site. Upon registration you will be given a participant number (PIN). Send the PIN and a copy of your final abstract to Andrew Crooks . Neither the organizers nor the AAG will edit the abstracts.
• October 24th, 2012: AAG registration deadline. Sessions submitted to AAG for approval.
• April, 9-13th, 2013: AAG meeting, Los Angeles, USA

New paper: Agent-based modeling for community resource management: Acequia-based agriculture

We have just got a paper accepted in Computers, Environment and Urban Systems entitled "Agent-based modeling for community resource management: Acequia-based agriculture." In the paper we explore the complex social interactions of water management, which involves landowners collectively maintaining and managing ditches which distribute water among the properties.

This system of the physical ditches and the maintaining organization together is known as an acequia, and the landowners who maintain it are called Parciantes. Acequias are interesting to researchers because of the developed common property regimes they require to function. The water carried by the ditches is a shared resource, and the complex management system of the acequia has evolved to avoid Hardin’s tragedy of the commons with regard to natural resources in the sense that it prevents the resource from being overused or under-maintained to the detriment of everyone. Ostrom has extensively studied the process of sharing such resources, investigating the structures set in place to preserve them. In ‘‘Governing the Commons’’, her book on common pool resources and human–ecosystem interactions, she suggests a set of characteristics that define stable communal social mechanisms. These characteristics include the presence of environment-appropriate rules governing the use of collective goods and the efficacy of individuals in the system.

Below is the abstract from the paper:

Water management is a major concern across the world. From northern China to the Middle East to Africa to the United States, growing populations can stress local water resources as they demand more water for both direct consumption and agriculture. Irrigation based agriculture draws especially heavily on these resources and usually cannot survive without them; however, irrigation systems must be maintained, a task individual agriculturalists cannot bear alone. We have constructed an agent-based model to investigate the significant interaction and cumulative impact of the physical water system, local social and institutional structures which regulate water use, and the real estate market on the sustainability of traditional farming as a lifestyle in the northern New Mexico area. The regional term for the coupled social organization and physical system of irrigation is ‘‘acequias’’. The results of the model show that depending on the future patterns of weather and government regulations, acequia-based farming may continue at near current rates, shrink significantly but continue to exist, or disappear altogether.

In the figure below we show some of our efforts in verification of the model, specifically, the water network, after 100 years of regular maintenance (A) and after 100 years of no maintenance (B). The darker the line, the more clear the segment is of sedimentation; only unmaintained acequias are impacted by sedimentation in this model, and appear in lighter shades.

Below is a movie are a few sample model runs showing how different scenarios play out, specifically with respect to land-use change.



Full reference:

Wise, S. and Crooks, A.T. (2012), Agent Based Modelling and GIS for Community Resource Management: Acequia-based Agriculture, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 36(6): 562-572. (pdf)