Rural landscapes in turbulent times: a spatially explicit agent-based model for assessing the impact of agricultural policies

Abstract

This paper presents a spatially explicit rural agent-based model which has been developed to assess how agricultural policy interventions, market dynamics and environmental change affect heterogeneous farm agents, their land use and the landscape of which they are part. This model moves beyond current literature by modelling market transactions among agents that are heterogeneous with respect to their economic and environmental characteristics within their spatially explicit landscape. The spatially explicit landscape is described by plot size, natural environmental and agricultural quality, shape, type of land use, intensity of use and distance to the homestead. The model is presented using the Overview, Design concepts, and Details (ODD) protocol. Modelling features are demonstrated by evaluating two different land market implementations which are based on auction mechanisms. We also explore how economic indicators change as the relative market power of buyers and sellers change, by moving from a buyers to a sellers’ market and vice versa.