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Code Reusability and Transparency of Agent-Based Modeling: A Review from a Cyberinfrastructure Perspective

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Book cover High Performance Computing for Geospatial Applications

Part of the book series: Geotechnologies and the Environment ((GEOTECH,volume 23))

Abstract

Agent-based models have been increasingly applied to the study of space-time dynamics in real-world systems driven by biophysical and social processes. For the sharing and communication of these models, code reusability and transparency play a pivotal role. In this chapter, we focus on code reusability and transparency of agent-based models from a cyberinfrastructure perspective. We identify challenges of code reusability and transparency in agent-based modeling and suggest how to overcome these challenges. As our findings reveal, while the understanding of and demands for code reuse and transparency are different in various domains, they are inherently related, and they contribute to each step of the agent-based modeling process. While the challenges to code development are daunting, continually evolving cyberinfrastructure-enabled computing technologies such as cloud computing, high-performance computing, and parallel computing tend to lower the computing-level learning curve and, more importantly, facilitate code reuse and transparency of agent-based models.

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Acknowledgments

This chapter was partially sponsored by USA National Science Foundation through the Method, Measure & Statistics (MMS) and the Geography and Spatial Sciences (GSS) programs (BCS #1638446). We also thank the comments and input from all the participants of the ABM Code Reusability and Transparency Workshop at the ABM 17 Symposium (http://complexities.org/ABM17/). Special thanks go to Drs. Michael Barton and Marco Janssen for leading the oral discussion of this symposium session. The authors owe thanks to the reviewers for their insightful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Applied Geographic Information Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Wenwu Tang

  2. Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Wenwu Tang

  3. Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research-UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Volker Grimm

  4. Department of Economics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Leigh Tesfatsion

  5. Department of Geography, Environment, and Society, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Eric Shook

  6. Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    David Bennett

  7. Department of Geography and PKU-SDSU Center for Complex Human-Environment Systems, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Li An

  8. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK

    Zhaoya Gong

  9. Department of Informatics, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA

    Xinyue Ye

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  1. Wenwu Tang
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  2. Volker Grimm
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  6. Li An
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Correspondence to Wenwu Tang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Applied Geographic Information Science, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Wenwu Tang

  2. Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Shaowen Wang

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Tang, W. et al. (2020). Code Reusability and Transparency of Agent-Based Modeling: A Review from a Cyberinfrastructure Perspective. In: Tang, W., Wang, S. (eds) High Performance Computing for Geospatial Applications. Geotechnologies and the Environment, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47998-5_7

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