Trying to create an agent-based for based on the 'theory of planned behaviours' to simulate/analyse flood responses/preparedness behaviours of individuals

General Forum
1

Hi,

I am new to ABM and would like to learn more. Is it possible to create an ABM for simulating flood responsive behaviours of individuals based on the ‘theory of planned behaviours’? Not sure if it is possible and would like to seek advice over the details over how to do so!

Hayli

2

Hi there,

The problem is that this theory is somewhat imprecise in details. Have a read of http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/21/4/5.html

How new are you to this kind of simulation?

3

Hi there,

thanks for the reply. I am completely new, like I have never built a model myself but is going to do some forms of simple prototype for my dissertation so I will have some experience before I actually start my masters degree.

What about trying to simulate how bonding social capital shape individuals’ risk perception (aka social networks of individuals) [e.g. people who are in contact closely on a daily basis may share similar risk perception], then given their varying perception, to understand the relationship between risk perception and actually conducting preparedness behaviours of flooding?
I am interested in the risk perception paradox as well (i.e. how high perception does not always lead to actually conducting more preparedness behaviours).

Would that be possible with ABM and how are data collected for such kind of model?

Thanks

4

ABM is very broad and technically you can model many topics. The challenge is to make the model useful, and therefore you need to define a good research question, study (and replicate) relevant other models, and go through a cycle of complexifying and simplifying the model. So try to find some relevant models in the literature and study those in detail.