Christophe Le Page

Cormas: Common-Pool Resources and Multi-agent Systems

This paper describes a simulation environment, called Cormas, that relies on multi-agent systems and has been achieved in Smalffalk, using VisualWorks software. Such a simulation tool may prove useful to better understand the complex interactions between natural and social dynamics when studying renewable resource management. The general principles of the Cormas platform are first presented, then the implementation is described. Two models built with Cormas allow to illustrate the use and the genericity of this tool.

Agent based simulation of a small catchment water management in northern Thailand. Description of the CATCHSCAPE model

Abstract Due to mounting human pressure, stakeholders in northern Thailand are facing crucial natural resources management (NRM) issues. Among others, the impact of upstream irrigation management on downstream agricultural viability is a growing source of conflict, which often has both biophysical and social origins. As multiple rural stakeholders are involved, appropriate solutions should only emerge from negotiation. CATCHSCAPE is a Multi-Agent System (MAS) that enables us to simulate the whole catchment features as well as farmer’s individual decisions. The biophysical modules simulate the hydrological system with its distributed water balance, irrigation scheme management and crop and vegetation dynamics. The social dynamics are described as a set of resource management processes (water, land, cash, labour force). Water management is described according to the actual different levels of control (individual, scheme and catchment). Moreover, the model’s architecture is presented in a way that emphasises the transparency of the rules and methods implemented. Finally, one simulated scenario is described along with its main results, according to different viewpoints (economy, landscape, water management).

Adapting Science to Adaptive Managers: Spidergrams, Belief Models, and Multi-agent Systems Modeling

Two case studies are presented in which models were used as focal tools in problems associated with common-pool resource management in developing countries. In the first case study, based in Zimbabwe, Bayesian or Belief Networks were used in a project designed to enhance the adaptive management capacity of a community in a semiarid rangeland system. In the second case study, based in Senegal, multi-agent systems models were used in the context of role plays to communicate research findings to a community, as well as to explore policies for improved management of rangelands and arable lands over which herders and farmers were in conflict. The paper provides examples of the use of computer-based modeling with stakeholders who had limited experience with computer systems and numerical analyses. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the major lessons learned from the two independent case studies. Perhaps the most important lesson was the development of a common understanding of a problem through the development of the models with key stakeholders. A second key lesson was the need for research to be adaptive if it were to benefit adaptive managers. Both case study situations required significant changes in project orientation as stakeholder needs were defined. Both case studies recognized the key role that research, and particularly the development of models, played in bring different actors together to formulate improved management strategies or policies. Participatory engagement with stakeholders is a time-consuming and relatively costly process in which, in the case studies, most of the costs were born by the research projects themselves. We raise the concern that these activities may not be widely replicable if such costs are not reduced or born by the stakeholders themselves. (Resume dauteur)

Co-constructing with stakeholders a role-playing game to initiate collective management of erosive runoff risks at the watershed scale

Erosive runoff is a recurring problem and is a source of sometimes deadly muddy floods in the Pays de Caux (France). The risk results from a conjunction of natural factors and human activity. Efficient actions against runoff in agricultural watersheds are well known. However they are still difficult to implement as they require co-operation between stakeholders. Local actors thus need tools to help them understand the collective consequences of their individual decisions and help to initiate a process of negotiation between them. We decided to use a participatory approach called companion modelling (ComMod), and, in close collaboration with one of the first group of local stakeholders, to create a role-playing game (RPG) to facilitate negotiations on the future management of erosive runoff. This paper describes and discusses the development of the RPG and its use with other groups of local stakeholders within the framework of two game sessions organized by two different watershed management committees. During the joint construction step, stakeholders shared their viewpoints about the environment, agents, rules, and how to model runoff in preparation for the creation of the RPG. During the RPG sessions, two groups of eight players, including farmers, mayors and watershed advisors, were confronted with disastrous runoff in a fictive agricultural watershed. Results showed that they managed to reduce runoff by 20-50% by engaging a dialogue about grass strips, storage ponds and management of the intercrop period. However, further progress is still needed to better control runoff through the implementation of better agricultural practices because, during the RPG sessions, the watershed advisors did not encourage farmers to do so. Because of the complexity of management problems, results of jointly constructing the game and the RPG sessions showed that modelling and simulation can be a very useful way of accompanying the collective learning process. This new way of working was welcomed by the participants who expressed their interest in organizing further RPG sessions.

Agent-based simulations of interactions between duck population, farming decisions and leasing of hunting rights in the Camargue (Southern France)

Understanding and predicting how bird populations and land cover respond to natural and anthropogenic changes is a major challenge for environmental planning. Multi-agent modelling enables horizontal relationships (spatial configurations) and vertical relationships (socio-economic organisation) to be integrated. GEMACE is a multi-agent model for simulating farming-hunting-duck interactions in the Camargue (Southern France). For an archetypal region, we simulated land-use conversion and ecological change in space and time resulting from the interaction between environment and human drivers. A wintering duck population is simulated and distributed heterogeneously in its habitats. The duck population is affected by various environmental factors such as land-use changes, wetland management, hunting harvest, and disturbance. Land-use decisions are made at farmland level by farmers and hunting managers. Important biophysical drivers are water and salt through land relief, land-use history, infrastructure, spatial neighbourhood, and current land use. Important human drivers are the economic conditions of the world agricultural market and land-use strategy. Through three scenario runs, we discuss the implications that can be drawn from this modelling application with regard to the viability of a spatial conservation management alternative and multi-field research on sustainable development.

Contribution of simulation and gaming to natural resource management issues: an introduction

Nowadays, computer-mediated simulations and games are widely used in the field of natural resource management (NRM). They have proved to be useful for various purposes such as supporting decision-making processes and training. First, the specificities of the NRM research field are highlighted. Then, based on the analysis of the articles presented in this special issue of Simulation & Gaming, some key features related to the implementation of gaming in such a context are introduced. Finally, after reviewing the benefits of using simulation games in NRM, the authors stress the ethical issue of changing social relationships among stakeholders by playing a game with some of them.

A multi-agents architecture to enhance end-user individual-based modelling

Abstract The increasing importance of individual-based modelling (IBM) in population dynamics has led to the greater availability of tools designed to facilitate their creation and use. Yet, these tools are either too general, requiring the extensive knowledge of a computer language, or conversely restricted to very specific applications. Hence, they are of little help to non-computer expert ecologists. In order to build IBMs without hard coding them nor restricting their scope too much, we suggest a component programming, assuming that each elementary task that forms the behaviour of an individual often follows the same path: an individual must locate and select information in order for it to be processed, then he must update his state, the state of other individuals, or the state of the rest of the ‘world’. This sequence is well suited to translation into elementary computerised components, that we call primitives. Conversely, task building will involve stringing out well-chosen primitives and setting their parameter values or mathematical formulae. In order to restrict the number of primitives and to simplify their use, ‘information’ must be carried through well defined structures. We suggest the use of the multi-agents system paradigm (MAS) which originates from the distributed artificial intelligence and defines agents as autonomous objects that perceive and react to their environment. If one assumes that a model can be described entirely with the help of agents, then primitives only handle agents, agent state or history. This greatly simplifies their conception and enhances their flexibility. Indeed, only 25 primitives, split into six groups (locate, select, translate, compute, end, and workflow control) proved to be sufficient to build complex IBMs or cellular automata drawn from literature. Furthermore, such a primitive-based multi-agents architecture is very flexible and facilitates all the steps of the modelling process, in particular the simulation engine (agents call and synchronisation), the results analysis, and the simulation experiments. Component programming may also facilitate the design of a domain specific language in which these models could be written and exported to other simulation platforms.

A novel mediating participatory modelling: the self-design process to accompany collective decision making

The increasing diversity of stakeholders, who often hold differing and conflicting land-use perceptions and strategies, underlines the growing need for innovative methods and tools to support a negotiation process aimed at an enhanced and more decentralised land-use management policy. Land-use management is a complex issue and thus presents an irreducible uncertainty that entails a variety of legitimate perspectives. Due to this complexity, the decision-making process should be incremental, iterative and continuous. This means that the acts of decision making will always be imperfect but will move progressively closer towards a shared satisfactory resolution. However, which tools will best fit such a theoretical starting point? Our team is seeking to develop an innovative form of participatory modelling fitting these hypotheses. As regards regional planning, a novel way to put these assumptions into practice has been under way since 1997 in the Senegal River Valley. This experiment, called SelfCormas, is being conducted to test a directed self-designing of modelling tools, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) by stakeholders and principals. From the initial stages, as little prior design work as possible is executed by the modellers. The process has been organised in the form of participatory workshops, including role-playing games, to support a local decentralisation policy at an operational level (2,500 km2). This sort of accompaniment leads to discussions, appraisals and decisions concerning the planning of land-use management. Just a few months after the first workshops, this process has already culminated in autonomous applications, from local to regional levels.

Who wants to terminate the game? The role of vested interests and metaplayers in the ATOLLGAME experience

Low coral islands are heavily dependent on groundwater for freshwater supplies. The declaration by the government of Kiribati of water reserves over privately owned land has led to conflicts, illegal settlements, and vandalism. Also, the water consumption tends to increase toward Western-like standards, and human pollution has already contaminated most freshwater lenses. This project aims to provide relevant information to local stakeholders to facilitate dialogue and devise sustainable water management practices. A computer-assisted role-playing game is implemented to fulfill this aim. The following three-stage methodology is applied: collecting local and expert knowledge, blending the di ferent viewpoints into a game-based model, and playing the game with the di ferent stakeholders to explore di ferent scenarios. Although game sessions delivered successful outcomes, the final stage of the project is characterized by the upheaval of contradictory government stands that undermine the whole process. It is argued that heterogeneous viewpoints may be handled in a satisfactory manner during the gaming sessions but that long-term hidden agendas may override the outcomes. Beyond the inherent question of legitimacy attached to such approaches, some players clearly must deal with constraints that are often genuinely considered external to the ongoing negotiation process.

Participatory Agent-Based Simulation for Renewable Resource Management: The Role of the Cormas Simulation Platform to Nurture a Community of Practice

This paper describes how the Cormas platform has been used for 12 years as an artefact to foster learning about agent-based simulation for renewable resource management. Among the existing generic agent-based simulation platforms, Cormas occupies a tiny, yet lively, place. Thanks to regular training sessions and an electronic forum, a community of users has been gradually established that has enabled a sharing of ideas, practices and knowledge, and the emergence of a genuine community of practice whose members are particularly interested in participatory agent-based simulation.