Reviewing Agent-Based Modelling of Socio-Ecosystems: A Methodology for the Analysis of Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainability

34 Pages Posted: 19 Aug 2009

See all articles by Stefano Balbi

Stefano Balbi

Ca Foscari University of Venice - Dipartimento di Economia; Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3)

Carlo Giupponi

Ca Foscari University of Venice - Dipartimento di Economia; Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)

Date Written: July 30, 2009

Abstract

The integrated - environmental, economic and social - analysis of climate change calls for a paradigm shift as it is fundamentally a problem of complex, bottom-up and multi-agent human behaviour. There is a growing awareness that global environmental change dynamics and the related socio-economic implications involve a degree of complexity that requires an innovative modelling of combined social and ecological systems. Climate change policy can no longer be addressed separately from a broader context of adaptation and sustainability strategies. A vast body of literature on agent-based modelling (ABM) shows its potential to couple social and environmental models, to incorporate the influence of micro-level decision making in the system dynamics and to study the emergence of collective responses to policies. However, there are few publications which concretely apply this methodology to the study of climate change related issues. The analysis of the state of the art reported in this paper supports the idea that today ABM is an appropriate methodology for the bottom-up exploration of climate policies, especially because it can take into account adaptive behaviour and heterogeneity of the system's components.

Keywords: Review, Agent-Based Modelling, Socio-Ecosystems, Climate Change, Adaptation, Complexity

JEL Classification: Q

Suggested Citation

Balbi, Stefano and Balbi, Stefano and Giupponi, Carlo, Reviewing Agent-Based Modelling of Socio-Ecosystems: A Methodology for the Analysis of Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainability (July 30, 2009). University Ca' Foscari of Venice, Dept. of Economics Research Paper Series No. 15_09, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1457625 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1457625

Stefano Balbi (Contact Author)

Ca Foscari University of Venice - Dipartimento di Economia ( email )

Cannaregio 873
Venice, 30121
Italy

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) ( email )

Gran Vía 35-2
Bilbao, Vizcaya 48009
Spain

Carlo Giupponi

Ca Foscari University of Venice - Dipartimento di Economia ( email )

Cannaregio 873
Venice, 30121
Italy

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) ( email )

Corso Magenta 63
20123 Milan
Italy

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