Brown, D. G. 2006. "Agent-based models," in The Earth's Changing Land: An Encyclopedia of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change. Edited by H. Geist, pp. 7-13. Westport CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Publication

Agent-based models (ABMs) are computer representations of systems that are comprised of multiple, interacting actors (i.e., agents). In a land-use/cover change (LUCC) context, agents can include land owners, farmers, collectives, migrants, management agencies, and/or policy making bodies, all of whom make decisions or take actions that affect land-use patterns and processes. By simulating the individual actions of many diverse actors, and measuring the resulting system behavior and outcomes over time (e.g., the changes in patterns of land cover), ABMs can be useful tools for studying the effects on land-use/cover processes that operate at multiple scales and organizational levels and their effects.