Double Modelling of the Dynamic of Activities in Rural Municipalities

TL;DR

This paper compares an agent-based model and a differential equation model to analyze how territorial constraints influence activity prevalence and land use changes in rural municipalities.

Contribution

It introduces and compares two modeling approaches—agent-based and aggregated differential equations—for studying land use and activity dynamics in rural areas.

Findings

Both models reveal the impact of territorial constraints on activity prevalence.

The models show different sensitivities to land use factors.

Comparison highlights strengths and limitations of each approach.

Abstract

Land use choices and activity prevalence in a selected territory are determined by individual preferences constrained by the characteristic of the analysed zone: population density, soil properties, urbanization level and other similar factors can drive individuals to make different kind of decisions about their occupations. Different approaches can be used to describe land use change, occupation prevalence and their reciprocal inter-relation. In this paper we describe two different kinds of approaches: an agent based model, centred on individual choices and an aggregated model describing the evolution of activity prevalence in terms of coupled differential equation. We use and we compare the two models to analyse the effect of territorial constraints, like the lack of employment in determined sectors, on the possible activity prevalence scenarios.