Building, composing and experimenting complex spatial models with the GAMA platform

Abstract

Open Archive Toulouse Archive OuverteOATAO is an open access repository that collects the work of Toulouse researchers and makes it freely available over the web where possible To cite this version: Taillandier AbstractThe agent-based modeling approach is now used in many domains such as geography, ecology, or economy, and more generally to study (spatially explicit) socio-environmental systems where the heterogeneity of the actors and the numerous feedback loops between them requires a modular and incremental approach to modeling. One major reason of this success, besides this conceptual facility, can be found in the support provided by the development of increasingly powerful software platforms, which now allow modelers without a strong background in computer science to easily and quickly develop their own models. Another trend observed in the latest years is the development of much more descriptive and detailed models able not only to better represent complex systems, but also answer more intricate questions. In that respect, if all agent-based modeling platforms support the design of small to mid-size models, i.e. models with little heterogeneity between agents, simple representation of the environment, simple agent decisionmaking processes, etc., very few are adapted to the design of large-scale models. GAMA is one of the latter. It has been designed with the aim of supporting the writing (and composing) of fairly complex models, with a strong support of the spatial dimension, while guaranteeing non-computer scientists an easy access to high-level, otherwise complex, operations. This paper presents GAMA 1.8, the latest revision to date of the platform, with a focus on its modeling language and its capabilities to manage the spatial dimension of models. The capabilities of GAMA are illustrated by the presentation of applications that take advantage of its new features.

An Occupancy Simulator for a Smart Parking System: Developmental Design and Experimental Considerations

“…ABM applications to traffic and transportation, including parking-related phenomena, are significant and numerous [7,8], with several popular ABM toolkits being spatially explicit [23] or including extensions that provide support for GIS data usage [22]. Agents represent drivers in cars moving across an environment, which is usually composed of a network of road, target destinations, and parking spaces.…”

Linking socio-economic and physical dynamics in spatial planning

“…The agent-based model SimFeodal (https://simfeodal.github.io/) has been created with the GAMA platform (Taillandier et al 2018) to explore the combined effects of these variables on the relocation of agricultural holdings (farms) in the course of time. A simulation begins in 800 CE and ends in 1200 CE.…”

BEN: An Agent Architecture for Explainable and Expressive Behavior in Social Simulation

“…This architecture is implemented and integrated within GAMA [48], a modeling and simulation platform aiming to be used by a large audience. The goal is to create a tool that may even be used by modelers who are not expert in programming, without loosing the expressivity for the behavior developed.…”