Intelligent agent modelling for natural resource management

J. Anderson, M. Evans
1994 Mathematical and computer modelling  
Modelling is a crucial aspect of both natural resource management and the development of intelligent systems. Simulation modelling, in particular, allows the resource manager to model how a real ecosystem may behave under varying conditions of interest. Such models are vital to decision-making in resource management. However, despite many advances in computer modelling, there is still a wide gap between models made for research use and the needs of natural resource managers: many models are not
more » ... of practical use to resource managers,because they deal only with simplified aspects of management problems. In particular, the impact of human activity is central to many problems in natural resource management, and so it is increasingly being recognized that for a model to be useful from a resource manager's perspective, it must be able to capture the changes and disturbances induced by humans as a part of the model itself. The ability to support the behaviour of intelligent agents within an ecosystem model is central to future work in natural resource management, and demands many features of a modelling tool that are not generally associated with ecosystem modelling. In addition to providing an objective simulation, an ecosystem model supporting intelligent agents must also act as a virtual reality for those agents, allowing them to gather the information required for decision making and alter the environment around them based on their actions. In this paper, we explore the additional functions required of a modelling tool in order to support intelligent agents as part of an ecosystem model. We illustrate these requirements using Gensim, a simulation system originally intended for testing and examining intelligent agent designs.
doi:10.1016/0895-7177(94)90235-6 fatcat:6g45t45kgjbv3da4wllhdpfkz4