Keywords
model comparison, theoretical background, human decisions
Start Date
1-7-2012 12:00 AM
Abstract
We have found in a literature review of land use change models that the documentation of human decisions, adaptation and learning is quite often incomplete and incomprehensible and would greatly benefit from a standard protocol for model description. Grimm et al. [2006, 2010] introduced such a standard protocol (ODD – Overview, Design, Details) for describing individualbased (IBM) and agent-based models (ABM). However, the current version of ODD [Grimm et al. 2010] is mainly designed to describe ecological models and is limited when it comes to the description of socio-environmental models, where human decisions play a central role. Furthermore we think that the majority of published model descriptions presents the model rules rather as ad hoc rules than try to embed the model and assumptions in a theoretical framework. To put the model rules into theoretical context may not be technically necessary to reimplement the model, but it assists the reader to understand the model’s functionality and its design and - maybe more important - it will facilitate the synthesis and comparison of specific case studies. Therefore we want to present an extension of the ODD protocol that explicitly addresses the needs to describe human decisions in agent-based models and to better link specific models to theory. This talk will be based on a working paper available in early 2012 that describes in detail our revised version of the ODD protocol. We have asked presenters in this session to base their model description on this revised ODD version and to discuss its applicability and usefulness.
Good modelling practice: expanding the ODD model description protocol for socioenvironmental agent based models
We have found in a literature review of land use change models that the documentation of human decisions, adaptation and learning is quite often incomplete and incomprehensible and would greatly benefit from a standard protocol for model description. Grimm et al. [2006, 2010] introduced such a standard protocol (ODD – Overview, Design, Details) for describing individualbased (IBM) and agent-based models (ABM). However, the current version of ODD [Grimm et al. 2010] is mainly designed to describe ecological models and is limited when it comes to the description of socio-environmental models, where human decisions play a central role. Furthermore we think that the majority of published model descriptions presents the model rules rather as ad hoc rules than try to embed the model and assumptions in a theoretical framework. To put the model rules into theoretical context may not be technically necessary to reimplement the model, but it assists the reader to understand the model’s functionality and its design and - maybe more important - it will facilitate the synthesis and comparison of specific case studies. Therefore we want to present an extension of the ODD protocol that explicitly addresses the needs to describe human decisions in agent-based models and to better link specific models to theory. This talk will be based on a working paper available in early 2012 that describes in detail our revised version of the ODD protocol. We have asked presenters in this session to base their model description on this revised ODD version and to discuss its applicability and usefulness.
