ABMland - a Tool for Agent-Based Model Development on Urban Land Use Change

Modelling urban land use change can foster understanding of underlying processes and is increasingly realized using agent-based models (ABM) as they allow for explicitly coding land management decisions. However, urban land use change is the result of interactions of a variety of individuals as well as organisations. Thus, simulation models on urban land use need to include a diversity of agent types which in turn leads to complex interactions and coding processes. This paper presents the new ABMland tool which can help in this process: It is software for developing agent-based models for urban land use change within a spatially explicit and joint environment. ABMland allows for implementing agent-based models and parallel model development while simplifying the coding process. Six major agent types are already included as coupled models: residents, planners, infrastructure providers, businesses, developers and lobbyists. Their interactions are pre-defined and ensure valid communication during the simulation. The software is implemented in Java building upon Repast Simphony and other libraries.