Nicolas Becu

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).

A Methodology for Eliciting and Modelling Stakeholders' Representations with Agent Based Modelling.

In the frame of using models to promote dialogue among stakeholders, we are interested in modelling representations as a mean to share viewpoints and opinions. A first trend for modelling representations uses socio-cognitive theories as frameworks for modelling. This article proposes a different approach combining Knowledge Engineering elicitation techniques and Agent Based Modelling. The use of elicitation techniques provides a methodological framework to capture representations directly from stakeholders’ discourse. Agent Based Modelling serves as a modelling structure which enables managing representations’ heterogeneity and conflicting opinions. The proposed methodology is detailed and applied to farmers’ representations of runoff and erosion in south of France. To achieve the construction of a running model of the interviewees’ shared representation, it was necessary to implement theoretical data supplementing the elicited information. We argue that companion modelling approach can help sharing and discussing those non-elicited information with stakeholders.

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.

Models for Sharing Representations

Companion modelling implementation is based on a network of individuals and artefacts amongst which models occupy a special place. This chapter presents the various models developed in a companion modelling process for purposes of representation sharing. Designed as a way of understanding actual (reference) systems in which social and biophysical dynamics overlap, models represent the evolution of these systems and are used for organizing exploratory simulation exercises involving stakeholders in the reference system.

Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation Applied to Environmental Management

The purpose of this chapter is to summarize how agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) is being used in the area of environmental management. With the science of complex systems now being widely recognized as an appropriate one to tackle the main issues of ecological management, ABMS is emerging as one of the most promising approaches. To avoid any confusion and disbelief about the actual usefulness of ABMS, the objectives of the modelling process have to be unambiguously made explicit. It is still quite common to consider ABMS as mostly useful to deliver recommendations to a lone decision-maker, yet a variety of different purposes have progressively emerged, from gaining understanding through raising awareness, facilitating communication, promoting coordination or mitigating conflicts. Whatever the goal, the description of an agent-based model remains challenging. Some standard protocols have been recently proposed, but still a comprehensive description requires a lot of space, often too much for the maximum length of a paper authorized by a scientific journal. To account for the diversity and the swelling of ABMS in the field of ecological management, a review of recent publications based on a lightened descriptive framework is proposed. The objective of the descriptions is not to allow the replication of the models but rather to characterize the types of spatial representation, the properties of the agents and the features of the scenarios that have been explored and also to mention which simulation platforms were used to implement them (if any). This chapter concludes with a discussion of recurrent questions and stimulating challenges currently faced by ABMS for environmental management.

Cormas: An Agent-Based Simulation Platform for Coupling Human Decisions with Computerized Dynamics

This paper aims at presenting the new functionalities of Cormas, a generic Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) platform dedicated to common-pool resources management. As free software, Cormas is used by an international community of researchers willing to understand the relationships between societies and their environment. It is intended to facilitate the design of ABM as well as the monitoring and analysis of simulation scenarios. To meet the increasing demand of our community of practice, the Cormas development has taken an innovative direction oriented towards the collective design of models and interactive simulation. In accordance with the principles of participatory methods and serious games, many experiments developed with Cormas combine two layers of complexity: the natural dynamic of the system, simulated by the computer, and the stakeholders’ interactions and decisions played by the actors. Between these two extremes, a range of intermediate situations exists where some decisions are human and others are computer-specified. The term hybrid agent simulation covers these intermediary situations. The main idea is to enable the stakeholders to interact with the execution of a simulation by modifying the behavior of the agents and the way they use the resources. Thus, it is possible to collectively explore scenarios to better understand how a desired situation may be reached. This may feed back into the collective design of the model. As our intention is to involve more deeply the stakeholders into the modeling process, it is necessary to have an easily changeable tool to act on the simulation and to modify the conceptual model on the fly. After having explained the purpose and the philosophy of the Companion Modeling, this paper presents how the Cormas functionalities (asymmetry of information, agent manipulation, modification of behavior, stepping back and distributed 1 CIRAD UPR GREEN, France & Universidad de Costa Rica, CIEDA, Costa Rica 2 CNRS UMR 7266 LIENSs, La Rochelle, France 3 CIRAD UPR GREEN, Montpellier, France

How to integrate scientific models in order to switch from flood control river management to multifunctional river management

ABSTRACT Since 2000, the European Water Framework Directive has required managers to restore water bodies to good ecological status, including rivers that have been substantially anthropomorphized, i.e. the vast majority of rivers in France. This obligation creates situations, such as removal of mill sluice gates and strong resistance from local stakeholders that must be addressed by governmental agencies and local elected officials. Seine watershed researchers have suggested using a hydraulic model to give river managers an overall vision of structure function (including sluice gates) and the water elevation adjustments between the upstream and downstream reaches with adjustments to the structures. Scientists adapted their model with the collaboration of the local actors in charge of the river management. This simulation of the management of river structures was achieved by constructing an interactive platform and using it to simulate annual flow scenarios for the river and management objective scenarios for all types of use, both recreational and high- and low-water scenarios. Model construction and simulation reunited scientists; State services agents, elected officials but also mill owners and members of local associations. The objective of this collective use was to allow managers to appreciate the current knowledge on the effects that removing a structure would have, around a multifunctional approach to the river, to consider removal of certain structures depending on the locally expected results.

How do participants view the technologies used in companion modelling .

The companion modelling approach mobilizes a number of tools to establish a representation of a given system.

Participatory Approaches to Research and Development in the Southeast Asian Uplands: Potential and Challenges

Participatory approaches have been discussed as alternatives to and complementary elements of more conventional research on sustainable land use and rural development in upland areas of Southeast Asia. Following a brief overview of the history of participatory approaches (Sect. 9.1), this chapter discusses the potential and limitations of applying Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools to field research practice in Vietnam (Sect. 9.2) and of involving stakeholders in priority setting, modeling and environmental valuation in the Southeast Asian uplands (Sect. 9.3). Section 9.4 scrutinizes the use of the Payments for Environmental Services (PES) tool, which aims to actively engage smallholder farmers in preserving fragile mountain ecosystems in Southeast Asia by rewarding them in cash or in kind. Section 9.5 provides an example of a successful multi-stakeholder knowledge and innovation partnership in northern Thailand – in the form of a litchi processing and marketing network formed among Hmong villagers, an approach which uses a promising action-research approach towards building sustainable rural livelihoods among ethnic minority groups.

Participatory simulation to foster social learning on coastal flooding prevention

Abstract Due to the increase in coastal flooding risk associated with sea-level rise and increasing population along the coasts, there is a strong need to develop efficient and long-term management strategies. In partnership with the local administration of Oleron Island in France, a participatory simulation model was developed to foster social learning about coastal risk prevention measures with local authorities and managers. This simulation integrates a coastal flooding model and a spatially explicit agent-based model that simulates the development of the area and the management of prevention measures. The participatory set-up includes an immersive environment for participants to remember the coastal flooding simulation displayed and a role game mechanism that simulates the coordination issues between the different decision bodies involved in coastal risk management. A first application proved that participants learn about the water expansion dynamics during flood events and the effects of building, raising and restoring dikes.