Agent Based Modeling and Adaptation to Climate Change

Agent based modeling is a technique for simulating complex systems that allows the modeler to investigate both the potencial for and the ssources of emergent properties: Behabiors of the systems quite different from the behabior of any of the elements within it. Problems well suited to investigation by agent based models are those with many people solving a similar problem where their individual responses to the problem influence the choices that others make, where new technologies may emerge to assist them solve the problem, and where social dilemmas exist. These features are inherent in many problems of adaptation to climate change. Agent based modeling can not predict the future of a complex adaptative system -no method of modeling can- but it can offer insights into the relationship between features of current systems and the range of possible future adaptations that will be likely in response to climate change.