Development of a Spatial and Temporal Agent-Based Model for Studying Water and Health Relationships: The Case Study of Two Villages in Limpopo, South Africa

Jeffrey Demarest (), Sheree Pagsuyoin (), Gerard Learmonth (), Jonathan Mellor () and Rebecca Dillingham ()
Additional contact information
Jeffrey Demarest: http://www.dean.usma.edu/se/bios/demarest.pdf
Sheree Pagsuyoin: http://www.civil.uwaterloo.ca/our_people/dept_person.asp?id=spagsuyoin
Gerard Learmonth: http://web.sys.virginia.edu/gerard-p-learmonth-sr.html
Rebecca Dillingham: http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments/medicine/divisions/infectiousdisease/faculty/clinical-faculty

Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2013, vol. 16, issue 4, 3

Abstract: Diarrhea, the second leading cause of child morbidity and mortality, can have detrimental effects in the physical and cognitive development of children in developing countries. Health interventions (e.g., increased access to health services and safe water) designed to address this problem are difficult to implement in resource-limited settings. In this paper, we present a tool for understanding the complex relationship between water and public health in rural areas of a developing country. A spatial and temporal agent-based model (ABM) was developed to simulate the current water, sanitation, and health status in two villages in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The model was calibrated using empirical data and published sources. It was used to simulate the effects of poor water quality on the frequency of diarrheal episodes in children, and consequently on child development. Preliminary simulation results show that at the current total coliform levels in the water sources of the studied villages, children are expected to experience stunting by as much as -1.0 standard deviations from the World Health Organization height norms. With minor modifications, the calibrated ABM can be used to design and evaluate intervention strategies for improving child health in these villages. The model can also be applied to other regions worldwide that face the same environmental challenges and conditions as the studied villages.

Keywords: Agent-Based Model; Water Quality; Early Childhood Diarrhea; Stunting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-10-31
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.jasss.org/16/4/3/3.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:2011-132-2

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 ().