Using Pattern-oriented Modeling (POM) to Cope with Uncertainty in Multi-scale Agent-based Models of Land Change

Authored by Nicolas R Magliocca, Erle C. Ellis

Date Published: 2013-12

DOI: 10.1111/tgis.12012

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Pseudocode ODD Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Local land-use and -cover changes (LUCCs) are the result of both the decisions and actions of individual land-users, and the larger global and regional economic, political, cultural, and environmental contexts in which land-use systems are embedded. However, the dearth of detailed empirical data and knowledge of the influences of global/regional forces on local land-use decisions is a substantial challenge to formulating multi-scale agent-based models (ABMs) of land change. Pattern-oriented modeling (POM) is a means to cope with such process and parameter uncertainty, and to design process-based land change models despite a lack of detailed process knowledge or empirical data. POM was applied to a simplified agent-based model of LUCC to design and test model relationships linking global market influence to agents' land-use decisions within an example test site. Results demonstrated that evaluating alternative model parameterizations based on their ability to simultaneously reproduce target patterns led to more realistic land-use outcomes. This framework is promising as an agent-based virtual laboratory to test hypotheses of how and under what conditions driving forces of land change differ from a generalized model representation depending on the particular land-use system and location.

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