Modeling Complex Natural Phenomena with the libAuToti Cellular Automata Library: An example of Application to Lava Flows Simulation

Cellular Automata, a computational science branch used for the modeling and simulation of complex systems, are parallel computing models which are continuously gaining attention from the Scientific Community for their potentiality and efficiency. This work presents the application of libAuToti, an open-source parallel library for implementing models based on the Cellular Automata approach, on the simulation of lava flows as defined by the SCIARA model. The library permits a straightforward and simple implementation of Macroscopic Cellular Automata models, which are appropriate for the simulation of spatial extended dynamical systems. Experiments have demonstrated the elevated computational efficiency of the library, executed both on an HPC machine and a standard multi-core PC, confirming the reliability of the library and goodness of simulation results. Eventually, future improvements and possible applications are discussed at the end of the paper.