Using Agent-Based Modeling for Water Resources Planning and Management
Authored by Emily Zechman Berglund
Date Published: 2015
DOI: 10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0000544
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Abstract
Agent-based systems have been developed for many scientific applications
and simulation studies to model a group of actors and their interactions
based on behavioral rules. Agent-based models and multiagent systems
simulate the emergence of system-level properties based on the actions
of adaptive agents that interact with other agents, react to
environmental signals, and optimize decisions to achieve individual
goals. In water resources planning and management, agent-based modeling
has been applied to explore, simulate, and predict the performance of
infrastructure design and policy decisions as they are influenced by
human decision making, behaviors, and adaptations. The goal of this
paper is to provide a comprehensive introduction to agent-based modeling
for water resources researchers, students, and practitioners, and to
explore water resources systems as complex adaptive systems that can be
studied using agent-based modeling. Agent-based modeling is defined, and
the characteristics of complex adaptive systems that necessitate its use
are described. A literature review is presented to demonstrate research
in the field that uses agent-based modeling to gain insight for water
resources management. Two illustrative case studies of agent-based water
resources systems models are developed and described. The case studies
demonstrate the use of reactive and active (e.g., optimizing) agents for
simulating water resources planning problems. The limitations in
applying agent-based modeling and the insights that are expected from
further investigations are summarized. (C) 2015 American Society of
Civil Engineers.
Tags
Infrastructure
Land-use
Optimization
Discrete-event simulation
Decision-Making
Strategies
Framework
Contamination events
Supply
systems
Demand