Please note two planned multi-agent sessions at next fall's HDGEC
meeting in Bonn. The first focuses on the use of empirical MAS models
to bridge knowledge gaps among planners, scientists, and resource
users, and the second compares alternative tools for representing and
parameterizing agent behavior. Please circulate to interested
parties, and apologies for cross-postings.
Dawn Parker
Invitation for Submission of Abstracts to the Session:
“Modeling and Collaborative Planning within a Multi-Agent Framework –
Empirical Approaches and Methods”
<< Please circulate >>
6th Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
Research Community
9-13 October 2005, University of Bonn, Germany
Session organizers
Thomas Berger, Marco Huigen, Dawn Parker (moderator)
Summary
In this session we will present multi-agent modeling approaches to
bridge the knowledge gaps among planners, scientists and resource
users. In particular, we will discuss the application of specific
agent-based methods for data collection, analysis, modeling and
planning. Topics to be dealt with are
o how to identify management options and stakeholders’ criteria in
analyzing them,
o how to parameterize empirical multi-agent models,
o how to deliver simulation results to stakeholders and capture their
feedback
o how to analyze the institutional context of decision-making and
monitor the impact of model results on planning and policy
implementation
Description
Multi-agent modeling holds the promise of providing an enhanced
collaborative framework in which planners, modelers, and resource users
may learn and interact. The models’ agent behavior is not hidden in
differential equations, but can be directly observed. Human actors
should therefore be able to identify with their analogs in the computer
model. This direct interpretability offers exciting prospects for using
multi-agent methods in experimental settings—to empirically
parameterize the models’ agent behavior— and in planning/negotiation
processes—to provide science-based information for environmental
management.
In recent years a number of empirical methods and tools has been
developed for modeling and planning of human-environment interactions.
Examples are survey sampling methods, participatory planning, and
model-enhanced learning. Until now these methods have been used in
isolation; this session will show how to integrate them within a
multi-agent framework to bridge the knowledge gaps between scientists
and practitioners, policymakers and resource users.
Deadline for submission
Please submit your abstracts until March 15, 2005 at
http://openmeeting.homelinux.org/
Early Announcement of Pre-Open Meeting Workshop:
“Multi-Agent Modeling and Collaborative Planning – Method2Method
Workshop”
<< Please circulate >>
In conjunction with the 6th Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of
Global Environmental Change Research Community
6-8 October 2005 (to be confirmed), Center for Development, University
of Bonn, Germany
Workshop organizers
Thomas Berger, Regina Birner, Franz Gatzweiler, Marco Huigen, Nancy
McCarthy, Jean-Pierre Muller (not yet confirmed), Dawn Parker
Summary
The aim of this workshop is to learn more about the methods and tools
developed by various scientific disciplines for representing agent
behavior and interactions, critically assess them and come up with ways
of integrating them for multi-agent modeling and planning. In a case
study workshop participants will compare methods and tools for setting
up a collaborative learning framework for planners, scientists, and
resource users.
Description
Scientists have developed a number methods and tools for modeling and
planning human-environment interactions, each guided by their own set
of disciplinary backgrounds and research paradigms. Examples are
bio-economic modeling, survey methods based on common sampling frames,
collective action research, experimental approaches, role-playing games
and participatory planning. There is much scope for integrating these
methods in a multi-agent framework and thereby improve modeling and
planning outcomes.
For a case study in developing countries, participants will receive
background information and empirical data to present how they would go
about designing and applying multi-agent models. The idea is not so
much to do the actual modeling but to discuss how participants would
approach it, what motivates their choice of methods and tools, what the
pros and cons of different choices are, and what complementarities
exist between methods and tools.
It is planned to publish the papers and findings of this workshop in a
journal special issue on multi-agent methods and tools.
Participants
This pre-conference workshop will convene practitioners, policy makers,
scientists and students from the North and the South. The workshop will
be organized by ZEF, IFPRI and CIRAD (not yet confirmed); a number of
slots will be made available for participants of the Open Meeting 2005.
Dawn Cassandra Parker
Assistant Professor
Departments of Geography and Environmental Science and Policy
Center for Social Complexity
George Mason University
703-993-4640
[log in to unmask]
http://mason.gmu.edu/~dparker3
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