Agent-Based Modelling: An Overview with Application to Disease Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the theoretical foundations of agent-based modelling, illustrating its application in disease spread simulation and emphasizing the need for further analytical development.

Contribution

It bridges the gap between the computational and theoretical aspects of agent-based modelling, offering insights into its construction and application in epidemiology.

Findings

Demonstrated agent-based model application to infectious disease spread

Highlighted the importance of theoretical frameworks in model development

Called for more research on analytical tools for agent-based models

Abstract

Modelling and computational methods have been essential in advancing quantitative science, especially in the past two decades with the availability of vast amount of complex, voluminous, and heterogeneous data. In particular, there has been a surge of interest in agent-based modelling, largely due to its capabilities to exploit such data and make significant projections. However, any well-established quantitative method relies on theoretical frameworks for both construction and analysis. While the computational aspects of agent-based modelling have been detailed in existing literature, the underlying theoretical basis has rarely been used in its construction. In this exposition, we provide an overview of the theoretical foundation of agent-based modelling and establish a relationship with its computational implementation. In addition to detailing the main characteristics of this computational methodology, we illustrate its application to simulating the spread of an infectious disease in a simple, dynamical process. As the use of agent-based models expands to various disciplines, our review highlights the need for directed research efforts to develop theoretical methods and analytical tools for the analysis of such models.