Modeling Human:Environment Interaction

The last volume of Annals of the Association of American Geographers included a fascinating article titled “Exploring Complexity in a Human-Environment System: An Agent-Based Spatial model for Multidisciplinary and Multiscale Integration.” The research synthesized the work of an army of previous work in areas of GIS modeling, computer science, population dynamics and resource management. All told, the model was used to predict the destruction of habitat in a small province in China that is known for its biodiversity and as important Giant Panda habitat. You see, people living in the area harvest forest for their own use, which reduces habitat. So by looking at the wood fuel needs of people based on reproductive rates, in/out migration, access to electricity, and so forth, they were able to run this monstrous model to predict how certain behaviors would effect habitat loss.

While reading the article, I remembered a similar model being used for a seemingly less academic research project. But you never know when you’ll need to simulate a zombie infestation.