Modelling Macroscopic Phenomena with Cellular Automata and Parallel Genetic Algorithms: An Application to Lava Flows

Abstract

Abstract. Forecasting through simulations the shape of lava invasions in a real topography represents a challenging problem, especially considering that the phenomenon usually evolves for a long time (e.g. from a few to hundreds of days) and on very large areas. In the latest years, Cellular Automata (CA) have been well recognized as a valid computational approach in lava flow modelling. In this paper we present some significant developments of SCIARA, a family of deterministic CA models of lava flows which are optimized for a specific scenario through the use of a parallel genetic algorithm. Following a calibration-validation approach, the model outcomes are compared with three real events of lava effusion.

Simulation of Multiphysics Multiscale Systems: Introduction to the ICCS’2007 Workshop

“…The first one is the development of sophisticated models for each physical process, characterized by its own specific scales and its own mechanisms, and integration of these models into one seamless simulation. Coupling or extension of atomistic and continuum models studied in [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] shows that sophisticated modeling is essential to accurately represent the physical world. Similarly, works in [15][16][17][18] demonstrate that biological or biomedical systems have intrinsically multiscale nature and require multiscale modeling.…”

“…Computational methodologies and programming tools [19][20][21] and advanced mathematical and numerical algorithms [22][23][24][25] are indispensable for efficient implementation of multiscale multiphysics models, which are computationally very intensive and often intractable using ordinary methods. Cellular automata [11,26,27] and the lattice Boltzmann method [28][29][30][31], which can be considered both as modeling tools and as numerical techniques, prove to be very powerful and promising in modeling complex flows and other multiscale complex systems.…”

“…Another way of treating multiscale problems is to develop single-scale approximation models. Papers [12,13] present development and analysis of models at an atomic or molecular scale, while project [11] couples multiple continuum models at a macroscopic scale. In [8], an adaptively coupled approach is presented for compressible viscous flows, based on the overlapped Schwarz coupling procedure.…”

“…Automaton, a mathematical model for a finite state machine, has been studied as a paradigm for modeling multiscale complex systems [11,26,27]. Systems considered in [26] arise from the modeling of weed dispersal.…”

“…In [27], complex automata are formalized with identification of five classes of scale separation and further investigation of the scale separation map in relation with its capability to specify its components. Efforts are spent in [11] on the application of macroscopic modeling with cellular automata to simulation of lava flows, which consist of unconfined multiphase streams, the characteristics of which vary in space and time as a consequence of many interrelated physical and chemical phenomena.…”