An Agent-Based Modeling Approach to Investigate Emergent Patterns in Ecological Systems

Due to its suitability, agent-based modeling is more and more often being applied in the domain of Ecology. The development of an agent-based model for the Ecological domain is however very difficult. Usually, many parameters need to be set to appropriate values and such values are not always available through fieldwork or in literature. This paper presents a generic approach to develop agent-based systems for the domain of Ecology and investigate emergent patterns. Hereby, formal languages are used for the specification of the model as well as the verification of emergent patterns. Furthermore, guidelines are given on how to obtain appropriate parameter settings. The approach is exemplified by means of a case study at the Green Beach in the Netherlands.