Dawn Parker has submitted coursework materials for her Spatial ABM class for the OpenABM community.  Much of this material is from her Spring 2009 class, although additional materials from previous classes have also been provided.

Sample text from the 2009 course materials are posted on each page for your quick review, and the complete documents are attached at the bottom of each page for download.

Comments and suggestions on the presentation and content of these materials are welcome and appreciated.

This course will introduce graduate students in the spatial, environmental, and computational social sciences to the use of agent-based techniques as a means of modeling human-environmental interactions. Emphasis will be placed on spatial processes, the use of spatial identifiers to link socioeconomic and biophysical models, and, where possible, links to geographic information and technology. We will cover applications in areas such as agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, water resource management, habitat degradation, interactions between human populations and non-human species, epidemiology, and civil violence.

The course will combine literature review with some hands-on modeling. When demo versions are available, we will compile and run models as we review articles based on those models. In addition, students will complete a class project where they develop their own models in their areas of interest. Students with no programming background can develop simple models using Netlogo. Students with advanced programming abilities will be encouraged to develop more sophisticated models using packages such as RePast, SWARM, MASON. etc., or may develop their own ABM using the language of their choice.

Dawn Cassandra Parker
Associate Professor
School of Planning
University of Waterloo
+1-519-888-4567 x38888
EV1 306
dcparker@uwaterloo.ca
http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/planning/faculty/parker/index.html

(Copyright 2009, Dawn Cassandra Parker)