[SwarmFest2004] Abstract

[Li An]

Hi,

This is an abstract submitted for SwarmFest 2004. Feel free to contact me 
if you have questions. It is attached as a text file, and also put here in 
this email.

Thanks,

Li




Modeling spatio-temporal dynamics of households, habitats, and forests: a 
case study in Wolong Nature
Reserve (China)

Li An (1)*, Marc Linderman(1), and Jianguo Liu(1)


(1) Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, 13 
Natural Resources Building,
East Lansing, MI 48824-1222, USA.

* Corresponding author—current address: School of Natural Resources and 
Environment, 2004 Dana Natural
Resources Building, The University of Michigan, 430 E. University, Ann 
Arbor, MI 48109-1115.
Phone: (734) 615-4897;
email: address@hidden

Traditional top-down approaches (e.g., state variable approach) to studying 
wildlife habitat often
ignore individual-level information about the human population of interest, 
especially at household
and/or individual level, and often cannot capture or explain some key 
processes.  This study reports
 on an agent-based spatial model that addresses this issue. The rapidly 
growing rural population in
the Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas (China) follows a traditional 
rural lifestyle, in which
fuelwood consumption has been the main driver for panda habitat 
degradation. Following the life
history of individual persons and households, this model equips the 
individual and household agents
with “knowledge” about themselves, other agents, and the environment 
(topography, forests, etc), and
allows them to interact with each other and the environment based on a set 
of rules obtained from our
fieldwork. The agents and forests change and “talk” to each other over time 
and space, resulting in
emergent human and habitat dynamics. Aside from providing insights to panda 
habitat conservation, this
model may provide wildlife researchers with a useful tool to study how 
habitat patterns change over
time and space as the local people, households, and forests evolve and 
interact with each other.

Keywords: agent-based modeling, households, human demographics, giant panda 
conservation

AnAbstractSwarmFest2004.txt
Description: Text document

Li An, Research Fellow
School of Natural Resources and Environment
2004 Dana Natural Resources Building
The University of Michigan
430 E. University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1115
Phone: (734) 615-4897 (SNRE), 763-3323 (CSCS)
Fax: (734) 936-2195