Social simulation, agents and artificial societies

Doran, Jim

doi:10.1109/icmas.1998.699021

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Validation still must be done or else another conceptual solution is required. Simply deferring classical validation (Doran 1996) won't help as neither will throwing it out completely (Checkland 1995). Also, calling on water managers to see their tools as providing insights, does not solve the problem as to how to convince the water managers that the models behind the scenarios provided are valid and 'good enough' to consider as serious possible futures.…”

Section: Analysis Of Results Of the Requirements Elicitation Phasementioning

confidence: 92%

Exploring the Gap Between Water Managers and Researchers: Difficulties of Model-Based Tools to Support Practical Water Management

Borowski

Hare²

2006

Water Resour Manage

131

112

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Supported by EU funds, the European research community has been putting much effort into providing model-based tools to support water resource managers in implementing water management as well as the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. This paper presents the results of a two-year long elicitation phase which aimed to explain why the use of tools in water management is not as great as the corresponding investment in applied research in this area might suggest it should be. The paper identifies a gap between water managers and research community that is evidence of a mutual misunderstanding of the fundamental activities of both communities. We elaborate on these misunderstandings between these two communities by focussing on their attitudes towards seven assumptions that derived from an elicitation phase carried out between 2003 and 2004. These misunderstandings appear to revolve around the issues of the role and importance of model-based tools in water management; the transferability of models to new target sites; the role of participatory modelling in water management; how to solve lack of confidence in model-based tools; the development of computer user interfaces to improve tool usability; and the nature of model integration. Based on these insights, recommendations for improving research, development and ultimately the use of model-based tools in river basin management processes are proposed. The recommendations include improving researchers' understanding of water management processes and the role their tools play within such a process; identifying for both communities the importance that such tools can play as part of social learningoriented management processes; improving the role of software consultancies as carriers of research results; considering new methods of model transferability between target basins; and expanding the structure of funding for academic research and development projects to allow

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Section: Analysis Of Results Of the Requirements Elicitation Phasementioning

confidence: 92%

Exploring the Gap Between Water Managers and Researchers: Difficulties of Model-Based Tools to Support Practical Water Management

Borowski

Hare²

2006

Water Resour Manage

131

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The danger of this strategy is that one ends up building auto-referential formalizations that have no link to reality (Edmonds and Moss 2005). Certainly there are those in other social science disciplines who have taken the step of accepting they are constructing and analyzing synthetic artificial worlds which may or may not have a link with the world we observe (Doran 1997). Those taking this position open themselves to the proposition that a model should be judged by the criteria that are used in mathematics: i.e., coherence, precision, soundness, and generality.…”

Section: Alternative Approaches To Empirical Validation In Ab Modelsmentioning

confidence: 97%

A Critical Guide to Empirical Validation of Agent-Based Models in Economics: Methodologies, Procedures, and Open Problems

Moneta²,

2007

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“…The use of agent technology in computer simulation promotes the inclusion of social-oriented cognition into individualbased simulations, emphasising the emergence of macro-phenomena from microlevel specifications [16]. This approach has been used to study ecosystems with biological entities like fishes [45] or insects [17], or artificial entities [25].…”

Section: Agent-based Models Of Group Foraging By Herbivoresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatially explicit models of group foraging by herbivores: what can Agent-Based Models offer?

Dumont

Hill

2004

Anim. Res.

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-Spatially explicit models of herbivore foraging can increase the knowledge of ethologists by enabling the prediction of the evolution of complex systems and revealing underlying behavioural mechanisms. We first show how spatially explicit models that do not distinguish between individuals imply making assumptions which violate some basic biological principles. Next, we describe how the main behavioural processes that determine herbivore foraging have already been incorporated in spatially explicit individual-based models of foraging. We then discuss how the use of agent technology promotes the inclusion of social oriented cognition in individual-based simulations, emphasising the emergence of macro-phenomena from the local interactions between individual organisms. This approach makes agent-based models particularly suited to simulate the behaviour of groups of foraging herbivores. We discuss how agent-based models can help to investigate conditions that are not easily amenable to experimentation, such as the effects of differences in memory capacity or in sociability, and how they are adapted to integrate the experimentally-demonstrated laws, processes and theoretical frameworks developed in herbivore foraging. agent-based model / grazing / individual-based model / social behaviour / spatial memory Résumé -L'apport des systèmes multi-agents à la modélisation du pâturage des herbivores. Les modèles spatialisés relatifs au pâturage des herbivores augmentent la connaissance des éthologues lorsqu'ils permettent de comprendre les mécanismes sous-jacents au fonctionnement des systèmes, et de prédire leur évolution. Nous commençons par montrer que les modèles spatialisés qui ne prennent pas en compte les caractéristiques individuelles des animaux vont à l'encontre de principes biologiques majeurs. Puis, nous décrivons comment les principaux mécanismes comportementaux qui déterminent le comportement des herbivores au pâturage ont déjà été pris en compte dans des modèles spatialisés individus-centrés. Ensuite, nous discutons que l'approche multi-agents s'adapte remarquablement bien à la représentation du comportement de groupes d'animaux, parce qu'elle permet de représenter les conséquences d'intéractions d'agents agissant en parallèle, de telle manière qu'elles influencent le comportement de l'ensemble du système. Nous montrons alors comment un modèle multi-agents peut permettre d'explorer des situations difficiles à tester expérimentalement, comme par exemple les conséquences de variations des capacités mémorielles des animaux ou de

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Social simulation, agents and artificial societies

Cited by 11 publications

References 10 publications

Exploring the Gap Between Water Managers and Researchers: Difficulties of Model-Based Tools to Support Practical Water Management

Exploring the Gap Between Water Managers and Researchers: Difficulties of Model-Based Tools to Support Practical Water Management

A Critical Guide to Empirical Validation of Agent-Based Models in Economics: Methodologies, Procedures, and Open Problems

Spatially explicit models of group foraging by herbivores: what can Agent-Based Models offer?

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