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Note: This is a preliminary version of a paper published as "The Regional is an open-source spatially explicit multi-agent model framework specifically designed for long-term simulations of the effects of policies on agricultural systems. Using iterated conventional optimisation problems as agents' behavioural rules, it allows for a bidirectional integration between geophysical and social models where spatially-distributed characteristics are taken into account in the programming problem of the optimising agents. With RegMAS it is possible to simulate the local specific response to a given policy (or scenario), where policies, together with macro and regional characteristics, are read into the program in specially formatted spreadsheets and standard GIS files. The paper presents the model logic and structure and describes its functioning by applying it to a case-study, where RegMAS results are compared with conventional agent-based modelling to demonstrate the advantages of spatial explicitness. The simulation refers to the impact of the recent "Health Check" of the CAP on farm structures, income and land use in a hilly area of a central Italian region (Marche).

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The invasion of a forest by a pathogen is a complex dynamic and spatial problem. The induced disturbances do not only reduce the present availability of the affected tree species but alter its future availability, population structure and distribution as well. These disturbances also have an impact on the prices of wood products via supply shocks, which, in turn, influence forest management choices, thus introducing feedback effects between market and ecological dynamics. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the economic impact of an invasive pathogen at a large scale by integrating the biophysical and economic aspects of the invasion into a dynamic and spatially explicit setting. The analysis is developed using a modified version of the French Forest Sector Model (FFSM), a recursive partial equilibrium model, to which a specifically designed pathogen spread and mortality model have been coupled. We calibrated the model to represent the ash dieback invasion in France. Results showed that impacts are not homogeneous across regions and generally depend on the resource distribution, pathogen spread and market structure. We observed that the behavioural adaptation of forest managers (i.e. regeneration and harvesting choices) is a non-negligible component of the total standing volume loss.