[GRASS-ABM] Which language to ABM with GRASS

[Rainer M Krug]

Hi Chris

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 7:45 AM, chris carleton
<w_chris_carleton at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I just joined this list and wish that I knew about it earlier. I'm a grad

Welcome - you didn't miss much - this list is unfortunately very low traffic.

> student in archaeology and my research involves GIS, ABM, and analytical
> mathematical models. I have, for a while now, been considering trying to
> create ABMs that use a GIS - like GRASS - in order to simulate environments
> for agents. Is there anything anyone can suggest in the way of reading or
> other media that will help to get me started on the specifics dealing with
> integrating GRASS and ABMs? Is anyone on this list making use of Python and

I used a similar approach - I developed an ecological simulation
model, written in R (I like the capabilities for analysis) and calling
GRASS. I use GRASS to store my raster maps in, and, in addition, to
conduct certain raster calculations which are easier in GRASS.
I have not used C, but was thinking about using Python (of which I
decided against, as I don't have any experience in Python).

The other option is to use R directly - depending on your
requirements, this would have advantages and disadvantages:

+ Only one programming language
+ no interfacing issues between programs
+ to do more complex analysis, R is used as a tool for GRASS data frequently

- no interactive visualizations
- might be problematic with larger areas

I don't know about speed differences - this would depend on the mode;l.


Cheers,

Rainer

> C instead of a Java based language for their simulations? I would prefer to
> use C or Python, which is why I'm asking. The kind of modeling I want to do
> would require that the simulation be able to access raster maps and affect
> changes to those maps as part of the output for analysis. Any help or
> general advice is greatly appreciated - this message, I suppose, is as much
> an introduction for myself as anything else so.... "Hello GRASS-ABM World".
>
> Chris
>
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-- 
Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation
Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)

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