Of Animal Husbandry and Food Production—A First Step towards a Modular Agent-Based Modelling Platform for Socio-Ecological Dynamics

Gerrit Günther, Thomas Clemen, Rainer Duttmann, Brigitta Schütt and Daniel Knitter
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Gerrit Günther: Department of Geography, Physical Geography, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 8, 24098 Kiel, Germany
Thomas Clemen: Department of Computer Science, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Berliner Tor 7, 20099 Hamburg, Germany
Rainer Duttmann: Department of Geography, Physical Geography, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 8, 24098 Kiel, Germany
Brigitta Schütt: Department of Earth Sciences, Physical Geography, Freie Universität Berlin, Malteserstr. 74-100, 12249 Berlin, Germany
Daniel Knitter: Department of Geography, Physical Geography, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 8, 24098 Kiel, Germany

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-25

Abstract: Agent-based models provide detailed, bottom-up approaches to investigate complex socio-ecological systems. This study presents a first step towards a modular agent-based simulation that is based upon empirical data, as well as environmental suitability maps and an assessment of livestock units. To illustrate the capabilities of our simulation, we use a geographically explicit approach to simulate a component of the production of animal products of a rural settlement in the lower Bakırçay catchment, western Turkey. The model structurally couples various agent types representing several elements and processes of the animal husbandry and food production value chain, such as sedentary herders—practising daily, short-distance pastoralism—and their flocks of goats and sheep, as well as milking and slaughtering. The modelling tool captures the fundamental socio-ecological dynamics of animal husbandry and food production in rural settlements. Therefore, the tool is valuable as a basis to discuss hypotheses regarding the number of animals that are needed to cover the requirements of different growing populations.

Keywords: multi-agent-simulation; pastoralism; human impact; grazing; landscape (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:12:p:1366-:d:699739

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