Complexity and Ecosystem Management
The Theory and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems
Published in December 2002
The quality of ecosystems is affected by the actions of different stakeholders who use them in a variety of ways. In order to understand this complex relationship between humans and nature, it is vital to understand the complexity of the interacting agents. The authors in this book attempt to do this by applying multi-agent systems to the problems of ecosystem management.
The multi-agent approach to ecosystem management is a relatively new and rapidly developing field which takes a formal computational approach towards the interaction of humans with their environment. The authors highlight some of the promising new methodologies which are emerging in the field from disciplines such as computer science and computational social science. They move on to address a number of important topics including diffusion processes, common-pool resources, land use change and the participatory use of models, in an attempt to solve contemporary management issues. They clearly demonstrate the potential utility of multi-agent systems in the context of theoretical problems and practical case studies.
This book provides a state-of-the-art review of the theory and application of multi-agent systems for ecosystem management. It will prove indispensable for ecological economists, natural resource and social scientists, and policymakers. It will also appeal to students and scholars who are interested in modelling the human dimensions of global environmental change.
Contents
Page/Chapter
1. 1. Introduction
Marco A. Janssen
PART 1: METHODS AND CONCEPTS
13. 2. The transition from local to global dynamics: a proposed framework for agent-based thinking in social-ecological systems
J. Marty Anderies
35. 3. Changing the rules of the game: lessons from immunology and linguistics for self-organization of institutions
Marco A. Janssen
48. 4. Futures, predictions and other foolishness
Roger Bradbury
63. 5. Validation and verification of multi-agent systems
Steven M. Manson
75. 6. Using artificial agents to understand laboratory experiments of common-pool resources with real agents
Wander Jager and Marco A. Janssen
103. 7. Implications of spatial heterogeneity of grazing pressure on the resilience of rangelands
Marco A. Janssen, J. Marty Anderies, Mark Stafford Smith and Brian H. Walker
PART II: APPLICATIONS
127. 8. Adjustment costs of agri-environmental policy switchings: an agent-based analysis of the German region Hohenlohe
Alfons Balmann, Kathrin Happe, Konrad Kellermann and Anne Kleingarn
158. 9. Agent-based simulation of organic farming conversion in Allier département
Guillaume Deffuant, Sylvie Huet, Jean Paul Bousset, Jérôme Henriot, Georges Amon, Gérard Weisbuch
188. 10. Scientific measurements and villagers’ knowledge: an integrative multi-agent model from the semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe
Tim Lynam
218. 11. Simulating land-cover change in South-Central Indiana: an agent-based model of deforestation and afforestation
Matthew Hoffmann, Hugh Kelley and Tom Evans
248. 12. Multi-agent systems and role games: collective learning processes for ecosystem management
François Bousquet, Olivier Barreteau, Patrick d’Aquino, Michel Etienne, Stanislas Boissau, Sigried Aubert, Christophe Le Page, Didier Babin and Jean-Christophe Castella
286. 13. Institutional change for sustainable land use: a participatory approach from Australia
Nick Abel, Art Langston, John Ive, Bill Tatnell, Mark Howden and Jacqui Stol
314 References
343 Index