Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a general-purpose introduction to the field and its implementation in a modern programming language. It deals with spatial microsimulation for transport modelling and agent-based modelling. The book delivers insight into more experimental approaches for generating spatial microdata, and provides a comprehensive worked example of the methods used ‘in the wild’. Spatial microsimulation is a growing approach to studying complex issues in the social sciences. It has been used extensively in fields as diverse as transport, health and education, and many more applications are possible. The book presents spatial microsimulation as a living, evolving set of techniques rather than a prescriptive formula for arriving at the ‘right’ answer. Software decisions have a major impact on the flexibility, effciency and reproducibility of research.