[Swarm-Modelling] "Individual-based Modeling and Ecology

[Steve Railsback]

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce that the book "Individual-based Modeling and 
Ecology", by Volker Grimm and me, is now available. Many of the ideas in 
the book arose from the community of people who develop and use Swarm, 
Repast, and related platforms, so I am also pleased to thank the many 
people that contributed.

While the book focuses on ecology, we designed it to be useful to 
agent-based modelers in general. The first part includes a primer on 
modeling, intended to help people get started and to design models that 
are as simple as possible while still being useful for specific 
problems. We show how patterns observed in a real system can be used to 
determine what does and does not need to be in a model, select spatial 
and temporal scales, and make other key design decisions.

The second part is designed to help people to think about agent-based 
modeling as theory-based science. We propose a set of modeling concepts 
and an approach to theory development that are intended to make ABMs 
less ad hoc and based more on general, tested theory.

Much of the book is also devoted to practical issues such as 
formulating, implementing, and analyzing models. For example, a long 
chapter on software design and development collects useful techniques 
developed in the agent-based modeling community.

The book is now available from Princeton University Press: 
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/8108.html
and (soon, if not already) from your favorite internet or local bookstore.
Additional information, including the Table of Contents and 
Introduction, are at: http://www.humboldt.edu/~ecomodel/book.htm

Steve Railsback

--
Lang Railsback & Assoc.
250 California Ave.
Arcata, California 95521
(707) 822-0453