Using Qualitative Evidence to Enhance an Agent-Based Modelling System for Studying Land Use Change

J. Gareth Polhill (), Lee-Ann Sutherland () and Nicholas M. Gotts ()
Additional contact information
J. Gareth Polhill: https://www.hutton.ac.uk/people/gary-polhill/
Lee-Ann Sutherland: http://www.macaulay.ac.uk/staff/staffdetails.php?lee-annsutherland
Nicholas M. Gotts: http://nickgotts.weebly.com

Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2010, vol. 13, issue 2, 10

Abstract: This paper describes and evaluates a process of using qualitative field research data to extend the pre-existing FEARLUS agent-based modelling system through enriching its ontological capabilities, but without a deep level of involvement of the stakeholders in designing the model itself. Use of qualitative research in agent-based models typically involves protracted and expensive interaction with stakeholders; consequently gathering the valuable insights that qualitative methods could provide is not always feasible. At the same time, many researchers advocate building completely new models for each scenario to be studied, violating one of the supposed advantages of the object-oriented programming languages in which many such systems are built: that of code reuse. The process described here uses coded interviews to identify themes suggesting changes to an existing model, the assumptions behind which are then checked with respondents. We find this increases the confidence with which the extended model can be applied to the case study, with a relatively small commitment required on the part of respondents.

Keywords: Agent-Based Modelling; Land Use/Cover Change; Qualitative Research; Interdisciplinary Research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-03-31
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.jasss.org/13/2/10/10.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jas:jasssj:2009-9-3

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation from Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Francesco Renzini ().