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Why not find another empirical data set to see if your ABM settings come anywhere close to reproducing that "reality"? If your ABMs have behavioiural settings that are anywhere generalisable - which, in a solid academic/scientific "experiment" they probably should be - then they should work in another data set of a comparable nature. This is often an issue when a modeller/investigator develops their behavioural and other settings on what might call a "training" data set. Obviously reproducing that data set with those settings is not a proper test since they have been developed on that information. So, if your settings are anywhere close to generalisable (which I believe they should be), then test them out on another set. peter ________________________________________ From: News and discussion about computer simulation in the social sciences <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Nicolas Malleson <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, 12 September 2018 7:03 p.m. To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [SIMSOC] Validating ABMs in the absence of data Hi SIMSOC, I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts/advice about a difficulty that I’m having with validating a model. This is in response to (very fair) comments by reviewers on a paper that is under review, so I will talk about the problem in general terms. I think the discussion should be of interest to others on the list. Colleagues and I have built a spatially-realistic agent-based model with agents who move around. It’s based on a real urban area. We have used an a-survey to calibrate the behavioural parameters, such that the agents behave in a way that is consistent with the results of the survey. The survey is national, so not specific to our study area. We put the agents into a virtual environment, let them go, and see what happens. The reason for creating this model in the first place is that we have no data on the spatial behaviour of the real individuals in our study area. So we’re hoping that by implement behaviour that is consistent with the results of the survey, the agents will give us some insight into the real dynamics of the case study area. But how do we validate the model? Assume that there are no empirical data available for our study area (it is possible to try to stand on the road and talk to people, but this is probably out of scope). What should an aent-based modeller do when they have an empirical model but no empirical validation data?? All the best, Nick — Dr Nick Malleson Room 10.114 (Manton building) School of Geography, University of Leeds [log in to unmask] http://nickmalleson.co.uk/ 0113 34 35248 ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the SIMSOC list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=SIMSOC&A=1 ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the SIMSOC list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=SIMSOC&A=1