Using Agent-Based Modeling for Water Resources Planning and Management

Berglund, Emily Zechman

doi:10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0000544

Cited by 127 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Yet sociohydrologic systems are rife with “big” problems, which are wicked, dynamic, and complex (Levy et al, ). Several methodologies from the social sciences have been adopted (e.g., case‐based studies, Mostert, and agent based models, Berglund, ) to capture complex human‐environment interactions in a causal framework. While these methods may be suitable in many cases for hypothesis testing, these approaches remain limited in their potential to support generalizable sociohydrologic theory on their own because they are often limited by extensive data requirements and concerns related to the interpretability, falsifyiability, and transferability of modeled outcomes (Di Baldassarre et al, ).…”

Section: Problem 2: Theoretical Explanatory Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Complementary Vantage Points: Integrating Hydrology and Economics for Sociohydrologic Knowledge Generation

Müller

Levy

2019

Water Resources Research

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Because human and environmental systems in the Anthropocene are increasingly coupled, hydrologists and economists often find themselves studying the same systems from different vantage points. Here we argue that synthesis across economics and hydrology can help address two pressing sociohydrologic challenges: actionable prediction and the generation of transferable knowledge from place‐based studies. Specifically, we review (1) empirical methods and (2) theoretical approaches from economics and connect the two through a proposed iterative framework. First, we find that empirical methods for statistical analysis of natural and quasi‐experiments in economics can be leveraged to distinguish causal relations from mere correlations in complex and data scarce systems, which can help address the challenge of sociohydrologic prediction. Second, we find that economic theories based on rational choice can be used to decipher known paradoxes in water resources, which can help address the challenge of sociohydrologic knowledge generation. In both empirical and theoretical domains, specialized knowledge in hydrology remains critical to properly applying techniques from economics to coupled human‐water systems. We propose that linkages between the two fields highlight a large potential for interaction.

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Section: Problem 2: Theoretical Explanatory Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Complementary Vantage Points: Integrating Hydrology and Economics for Sociohydrologic Knowledge Generation

Müller

Levy

2019

Water Resources Research

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“…ABMs are often criticized for relying on informal and subjective validation or no validation at all [65]. Validating ABMs developed for complex systems using historical data is difficult and infeasible because of the stochastic nature of human-behavior models [48].…”

Section: Model Verification and Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Fundamental Phenomena Affecting the Water Conservation Technology Adoption of Residential Consumers Using Agent-Based Modeling

Rasoulkhani

Logasa

Reyes

et al. 2018

Water

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More than one billion people will face water scarcity within the next ten years due to climate change and unsustainable water usage, and this number is only expected to grow exponentially in the future. At current water use rates, supply-side demand management is no longer an effective way to combat water scarcity. Instead, many municipalities and water agencies are looking to demand-side solutions to prevent major water loss. While changing conservation behavior is one demand-based strategy, there is a growing movement toward the adoption of water conservation technology as a way to solve water resource depletion. Installing technology into one's household requires additional costs and motivation, creating a gap between the overall potential households that could adopt this technology, and how many actually do. This study identified and modeled a variety of demographic and household characteristics, social network influence, and external factors such as water price and rebate policy to see their effect on residential water conservation technology adoption. Using Agent-based Modeling and data obtained from the City of Miami Beach, the coupled effects of these factors were evaluated to examine the effectiveness of different pathways towards the adoption of more water conservation technologies. The results showed that income growth and water pricing structure, more so than any of the demographic or building characteristics, impacted household adoption of water conservation technologies. The results also revealed that the effectiveness of rebate programs depends on conservation technology cost and the affluence of the community. Rebate allocation did influence expensive technology adoption, with the potential to increase the adoption rate by 50%. Additionally, social network connections were shown to have an impact on the rate of adoption independent of price strategy or rebate status. These findings will lead the way for municipalities and other water agencies to more strategically implement interventions to encourage household technology adoption based on the characteristics of their communities.

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“…If a coordination mechanism exists, it will guide the interactions among individual decision processes. The agent-based modeling (ABM) framework provides such a mechanism for integrating knowledge and understanding across diverse domains (Berglund, 2015;Yang et al, 2009). In an ABM, individual actors are represented as unique and autonomous "agents" with their own interests.…”

Section: Previous Studies Of Coupled Natural-human System Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A coupled modeling framework for sustainable watershed management in transboundary river basins

Khan

Yang

Xie

et al. 2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. There is a growing recognition among water resource managers that sustainable watershed management needs to not only account for the diverse ways humans benefit from the environment, but also incorporate the impact of human actions on the natural system. Coupled naturalhuman system modeling through explicit modeling of both natural and human behavior can help reveal the reciprocal interactions and co-evolution of the natural and human systems. This study develops a spatially scalable, generalized agent-based modeling (ABM) framework consisting of a process-based semi-distributed hydrologic model (SWAT) and a decentralized water system model to simulate the impacts of water resource management decisions that affect the food-water-energy-environment (FWEE) nexus at a watershed scale. Agents within a river basin are geographically delineated based on both political and watershed boundaries and represent key stakeholders of ecosystem services. Agents decide about the priority across three primary water uses: food production, hydropower generation and ecosystem health within their geographical domains. Agents interact with the environment (streamflow) through the SWAT model and interact with other agents through a parameter representing willingness to cooperate. The innovative twoway coupling between the water system model and SWAT enables this framework to fully explore the feedback of human decisions on the environmental dynamics and vice versa. To support non-technical stakeholder interactions, a web-based user interface has been developed that allows for role-play and participatory modeling. The generalized ABM framework is also tested in two key transboundary river basins, the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia and the Niger River basin in West Africa, where water uses for ecosystem health compete with growing human demands on food and energy resources. We present modeling results for crop production, energy generation and violation of ecohydrological indicators at both the agent and basin-wide levels to shed light on holistic FWEE management policies in these two basins.

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Using Agent-Based Modeling for Water Resources Planning and Management

Cited by 127 publications

References 56 publications

Complementary Vantage Points: Integrating Hydrology and Economics for Sociohydrologic Knowledge Generation

Complementary Vantage Points: Integrating Hydrology and Economics for Sociohydrologic Knowledge Generation

Understanding Fundamental Phenomena Affecting the Water Conservation Technology Adoption of Residential Consumers Using Agent-Based Modeling

A coupled modeling framework for sustainable watershed management in transboundary river basins

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