9th - 13th August 2010

Dr. Andrew Crooks (acrooks2@gmu.edu) Blog: GIS & Agent-based modeling


Description: These short lectures will introduce researchers to the use of agent-based techniques to model various aspects of Human-Environment Interactions. Emphasis will be placed on the notion that our ''world is constantly changing through time and across geographical scales where activities and features change from the split second decision involving local movements such as people walking, the development of land over months and years, to the migration of peoples over decades. We will cover applications ranging across the spectrum of urban systems, from pedestrian modeling, traffic simulation, and residential dynamics to that to urban growth models of cities and regions.

In this series of lectures I will introduce how one can combine Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and agent-based modeling (ABM) to explore a range of topics from that of the micro-movement of pedestrians to the growth of entire cities and regions. Specifically the classes will be:

  1. Introduction to GIS and ABM
  2. Mobile agent-based modeling
  3. Agent-based modeling of residential location
  4. Modeling urban growth and change with agent-based model
  5. Human/non-human interactions and challenges for geo-spatial simulations
  1. to understand the motivation for the use of agent-based models to study Human-Environment interactions;
  2. to learn about the variety of research areas across the social science disciplines that integrate ABM and GIS;
  3. to understand the distinct contribution that ABM can make to understanding Human-Environment interactions;
  4. to provide foundations for more advanced research upon the exploration of ABM and GIS for the study of Human-Environment interactions.
No particular computer science, programming, or advanced mathematics skills are necessary for this class, since it is specifically designed as an introductory survey.