Adding ecosystem function to agent-based land use models.

Area of Science:

• Ecological modeling
• Land use science
• Computational sustainability

Background:

• Agent-based models (ABMs) are crucial for simulating land use decision-making.
• Incorporating ecosystem functions (e.g., land fertility, carbon sequestration) enhances ABM realism.
• Biogeochemical models are necessary for quantifying ecosystem fluxes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine challenges in integrating ecosystem function simulations into land use ABMs.
• To present methods for incorporating the Century biogeochemical model into ABMs.
• To address computational costs associated with these integrations.

Main Methods:

• Description of the Century model and its land use options.
• Exploration of combinatorial choices leading to numerous simulation runs.
• Presentation of three integration strategies: look-up tables and in-simulation model execution.

Main Results:

• The Century model is parameter-intensive and can generate a high number of simulation runs.
• Integrating Century within ABMs can be computationally efficient but shifts costs.
• Different integration methods offer varying trade-offs between computational load and implementation complexity.

Conclusions:

• Computational concerns should not impede the integration of ecosystem functions in ABMs.
• Efficient methods for incorporating biogeochemical models are essential for advancing land use modeling.
• Further research into optimizing computational efficiency is warranted.