Agent-Based Modelling for Environmental Coalition Formation

Planned intervention to achieve stakeholder cooperation and coalition is essential for successful environmental management. Agent-based modelling on a computer has the potential to build a practical theory of intervention in this and related contexts. Potentially we can compare real intervention strategies with those an agent-based model suggests and hence obtain new insights and guidelines of practical value. But the technical problems of model building for this purpose are formidable. We explain and discuss these problems by reference to an example model specification framework, and seek ways forward. Insights obtained may be generalised to coalition formation in general.