Colonist Household Decisionmaking and Land-Use Change in the Amazon Rainforest: An Agent-Based Simulation

Peter Deadman, Derek Robinson, Emilio Moran and Eduardo Brondizio
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Peter Deadman: Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
Derek Robinson: School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

Environment and Planning B, 2004, vol. 31, issue 5, 693-709

Abstract: An agent-based model was developed as a tool designed to explore our understanding of spatial, social, and environmental issues related to land-use/cover change. The model focuses on a study site in a region of the Amazon frontier, characterized by the development of family farms on 100-ha lots arranged along the Transamazon highway and a series of side roads, west of Altamira, Brazil. The model simulates the land-use behaviour of farming households on the basis of a heuristic decisionmaking strategy that utilizes burn quality, subsistence requirements, household characteristics, and soil quality as key factors in the decisionmaking process. Farming households interact through a local labour pool. The effects of the land-use decisions made by households affect the land cover of their plots and ultimately that of the region. This paper describes this model, referred to as LUCITA, and presents preliminary results showing land-cover changes that compare well with observed land-use and land-cover changes in the region.

Date: 2004
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirb:v:31:y:2004:i:5:p:693-709

DOI: 10.1068/b3098

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