A BEHAVIORAL AGENT MODEL FOR SYNTHESIZING VEGETATION DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS ON 3D TERRAINS

Authored by Eugene Ch'ng

Date Published: 2009

DOI: 10.1080/08839510802573616

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Pseudocode Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Vegetations, similar to other organisms, persist on terrains based on niches of their abiotic and biotic environments. Agent-based models of vegetation have demonstrated that, via the process of macro self-organization, are capable of forming forests and undergrowth by means of their behavior and the resources available in the ecosystem. In order to more accurately synthesize their collective behavior, a set of rules encompassing basic vegetation behavior were defined to enable realistic patterns to be formed locally via interaction and extra-locally via emergence in accord with their preferences in various controlled environments. Furthermore, the use of botanical parameters fine-tuned and regulated via simple rules could, in the near future, become a potential model for determining large-scale spatial and temporal distribution of dominant vegetation species, enhancing traditional methods and visualization in studies related to forest dynamics and research in landscape reconstruction.

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