GIS and Spatial Agent-Based Model Simulations for Sustainable Development

In recent years the interdisciplinary field of computational social science (CSS) has developed theory and research for developing spatial “agent-based” social simulation (SABSS) models of human societies situated in ecosystems that often comprise land cover and climate. This paper explains the needs and demand for GIS in these types of agent-based models, with an emphasis on models applied to Eastern Africa and Inner Asia and relevance for understanding and analyzing development issues. The models are based on MASON (Multi-Agent Simulator Of Networks and Neighborhoods), an open-source simulation environment in the Java language and suitable for developing ABSS models with GIS for representing spatial features.