Mason-Yale Joint Project on Computational Modeling of Complex Crises in East Africa
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Mission: To develop new agent-based spatial simulation models for analyzing scenarios of societal consequences of disasters in the East Africa region.
Principal Investigator: Dr Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, George Mason University
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Browsing Mason-Yale Joint Project on Computational Modeling of Complex Crises in East Africa by Subject "Africa, East"
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Item An Agent-Based Model of Climate Change and Conflict among Pastoralists in East Africa(International Environmental Modelling and Software Society (iEMSs), 2010) Hailegiorgis, A.B.; Kennedy, W.G.; Balan, G.C.; Bassett, J.K.; Gulden, T.Presented is an agent-based model of human-environment interaction and conflict in East Africa using the MASON agent-based simulation environment. The model focuses on the complex interaction of pastoral groups with their environment and other emerging external actors. The model supports the observation that increased seasonal rainfall variability and droughts create tremendous stress on pastoralists groups and challenges their long-term resilience and adaptive response mechanisms.Item Comparing Agent-Based Computational Simulation Models in Cross-Cultural Research(SAGE, 2011-05) Cioffi-Revilla, ClaudioMel Ember was co-Principal Investigator in the Mason-HRAF Joint Project on Eastern Africa, a multiyear project aimed at developing and analyzing advanced computational agent-based models of human societies across 10 countries and 12 ecosystems. A major unsolved challenge in this kind of social science research is to devise a systematic way to compare, contrast, and communicate different models of social dynamics along relevant dimensions and characteristics, given the inherent complexity of most computational agent-based models. This article proposes a viable systematic framework for comparing models and illustrates its application using some of the models that Mel helped inspire and develop as senior project participant.Item Conflict in Complex Socio-Natural Systems: Using Agent-Based Modeling to Understand the Behavioral Roots of Social Unrest within the Mandera Triangle(Human Behavior-Computational Modeling and Interoperability Conference, 2009-06) Rouleau, Mark; Coletti, Mark; Bassett, Jeffrey K.; Hailegiorgis, Atesmachew B.; Gulden, Tim; Kennedy, William G.Conflict resolution research relies upon a deep understanding of human behavior within highly complex socionatural systems. Scholars must isolate the source of conflict among individuals reacting to the feedback of changing socionatural conditions. Fortunately, the oft-obscured roots of conflict typically surface at critical points of change within the system. We use the Mandera Triangle region of East Africa as an example of this surfacing of behavioral drivers. Our research fuses a wide range of backgrounds to construct a simulation model of Mandera and to gain a better understanding of the roots of human behavior in relation to social conflict.Item MASON HerderLand: Origins of Conflict in East Africa(2010-11) Kennedy, W.G.; Hailegiorgis, A.B.; Rouleau, M.; Bassett, J.K.; Coletti, M.; Balan, G.C.; Gulden, T.; Cioffi-Revilla, C.HerderLand is an agent-based model of the people and environment in the Mandera Triangle area of Eastern Africa developed to address the causes of conflict in the area. With it we have conducted three sets of experiments varying the major environmental parameters we believed would affect conflict in the region.