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Spatial Microsimulation and Agent-Based Modelling

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The Practice of Spatial Analysis

Abstract

This chapter critically reviews the state-of-the-art in spatial microsimulation and agent-based modelling approaches with an emphasis on efforts to combine them in order to address applied geography problems. Spatial microsimulation typically involves the merging of census and social survey data to simulate a population of individuals within households (for different geographical units) whose characteristics are as close to the real population as it is possible to estimate (and for small areas for which this information is not available from published sources). Microsimulation is closely linked conceptually to another type of individual-level modelling: agent-based models (ABM). ABM are normally associated with the behaviour of multiple agents in a social or economic system. This chapter offers an overview of the state-of-the-art of both modelling approaches as well as a discussion of attempts to combine them, with an articulation of a relevant research agenda.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economic Geography, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Dimitris Ballas

  2. Department of Automatic Control and System Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, UK

    Tom Broomhead

  3. School of Law, Bartolomé House, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, UK

    Phil Mike Jones

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  1. Dimitris Ballas
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  2. Tom Broomhead
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  3. Phil Mike Jones
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Correspondence to Dimitris Ballas .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Mytilini, Lesvos, Greece

    Helen Briassoulis

  2. Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Mytilini, Lesvos, Greece

    Dimitris Kavroudakis

  3. Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Mytilini, Lesvos, Greece

    Nikolaos Soulakellis

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Ballas, D., Broomhead, T., Jones, P.M. (2019). Spatial Microsimulation and Agent-Based Modelling. In: Briassoulis, H., Kavroudakis, D., Soulakellis, N. (eds) The Practice of Spatial Analysis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89806-3_4

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