ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces agent-based modeling (ABM) and explores how this technique can help researchers and stakeholders understand disputes in a much deeper way. ABMs have gained increasing interest in social and environmental modeling, including efforts to increase scientific understanding and improve environmental management and climate policy. The chapter also explores the links between ABM and complexity science, including contrasts between the approaches and philosophies of ABM versus aggregate modeling. It discusses ABM development platforms and software environments, decision making and interactions between agents, and the incorporation of different paradigms of human behavior into models. The chapter also discusses validation issues and the empirical basis of ABMs, along with the movement toward participatory ABM. The system dynamics paradigm parallels modern ecological theory in conceiving system behavior as a product of system structure. ABMs of social interactions start with rules and assumptions believed to replicate how individual agents behave, interact, and learn.
