An Integrative Model with Agent-Based Artificial Intelligence and GIS (IMABAIG): Simulating Spatio-Dynamics of Rural Households and the Associated Impacts on Giant Panda Habitats in the Wolong Nature Reserve (China)

Li An, Michigan State University
Marc Linderman, Michigan State University
Ashton Shortridge, Michigan State University
Jianguo (Jack) Liu, Michigan State University

This paper reports on the development, implementation, and results of an agent-based model simulating the impact of a growing rural population on the forests of the Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas (China). The local households follow a traditional Tibetan lifestyle, in which fuelwood consumption has caused panda habitat degradation. By keeping track of the life history of individual persons and dynamics of households, this model has equipped household agents with “knowledge” about themselves, other agents, and the environment, and allow them to interact with each other through activities based on a set of artificial intelligence rules. The households and environment co-evolve over time and space, resulting in macroscopic forest/habitat dynamics. Aside from helping local policy making, this approach may provide researchers with a tool to study how overall landscape patterns emerge as a result of actions of many individuals by integrating different disciplines at varying scales.