Spatial Simulation (PDF)

A ground-up approach to explaining dynamic spatial
modelling for an interdisciplinary audience.

Across broad areas of the environmental and social sciences,
simulation models are an important way to study systems
inaccessible to scientific experimental and observational methods,
and also an essential complement to those more conventional
approaches. The contemporary research literature is teeming
with abstract simulation models whose presentation is
mathematically demanding and requires a high level of knowledge of
quantitative and computational methods and approaches.
Furthermore, simulation models designed to represent specific
systems and phenomena are often complicated, and, as a result,
difficult to reconstruct from their descriptions in the
literature. This book aims to provide a practical and
accessible account of dynamic spatial modelling, while also
equipping readers with a sound conceptual foundation in the
subject, and a useful introduction to the wide-ranging
literature.

Spatial Simulation: Exploring Pattern and Process is
organised around the idea that a small number of spatial processes
underlie the wide variety of dynamic spatial models. Its central
focus on three 'building-blocks' of dynamic spatial
models - forces of attraction and segregation, individual
mobile entities, and processes of spread - guides the reader
to an understanding of the basis of many of the complicated models
found in the research literature. The three building block models
are presented in their simplest form and are progressively
elaborated and related to real world process that can be
represented using them. Introductory chapters cover essential
background topics, particularly the relationships between pattern,
process and spatiotemporal scale. Additional chapters
consider how time and space can be represented in more complicated
models, and methods for the analysis and evaluation of models.
Finally, the three building block models are woven together in a
more elaborate example to show how a complicated model can be
assembled from relatively simple components.

To aid understanding, more than 50 specific models described in
the book are available online at patternandprocess.org for
exploration in the freely available Netlogo platform. This
book encourages readers to develop intuition for the abstract types
of model that are likely to be appropriate for application in any
specific context. Spatial Simulation: Exploring Pattern
and Process will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate
students taking courses in environmental, social, ecological and
geographical disciplines. Researchers and professionals who
require a non-specialist introduction will also find this book an
invaluable guide to dynamic spatial simulation.