[SwarmFest2004] Submission for Talk / Extended Abstract

[Bill Rand]

To whom it may concern:

        Here is an extended abstract for submission to Swarmfest 2004:

Relationships between Agent-Based Models and Geographic Information
Systems: An Illustrated Catalog

William Rand, Daniel G. Brown, Michael North, Rick Riolo, Derek T. Robinson

Spatial data models in geographic information systems (GIS) are used to
structure the (mostly static) geographic world so that it can be
represented within a database.  Two conceptual data models dominate GIS
representations of the world, i.e., the field and object views.  Spatial
process models are similarly structured representations of dynamics
within the geographic world.  Two dominant conceptual views of spatial
processes, borrowed from the Eulerian and Lagrangian views of fluid
dynamics, yield models of change and models of movement.  In this talk
we argue that spatial extensions of object-based process models require that
these process models be closely coupled with data models that can be used
to explore, explain, and interpolate the spatial data that results
from the process model.  We discuss how alternative spatial data
models constrain or enable close coupling with alternative types of
spatial process models.  We briefly examine past attempts to integrate
spatial data and process models.  We then describe how independent
developments toward the object-oriented computational paradigm within
both geographic data modeling and spatial process modeling provide a
new opportunity for close coupling. We discuss the scientific and
practical advantages of developing systems that closely couple spatial
data models in the form of GIS databases with spatial process models
in the form of agent-based models (ABM).  The rest of this talk
focuses on developing a catalog of relationships between geographic
data (fields and objects) and agent-based process models, based on
whether the agents have an identity association with spatial
feature(s), whether or not such spatial features can move, whether or
not they can change, whether or not the agents can change non-agent
spatial features or be changed by these features, and whether time is
treated as time steps or discrete events.  These types of relationships
are then illustrated with examples from our work in coupling ABM and GIS.
Moreover, there is the question of implementation. We discuss several of
the issues that must be addressed when actually implementing the
connection between ABM and GIS. We illustrate these questions with
examples from our own work and discuss our plans for further integration
in the future.

--
Bill Rand      1427 Broadway Apt. #2  Ann Arbor, MI 48105   734-717-7965
     address@hidden            http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~wrand/
 "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about
        telescopes." - E. W. Dijkstra
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