Spatiotemporal Modeling of the Smart City Residents’ Activity with Multi-Agent Systems

Robert Olszewski,Piotr Pałka,Tadeusz Płatkowski,Marek Borkowski,Agnieszka Turek,Bogna Kietlińska

doi:10.3390/app9102059

Robert Olszewski, Piotr Pałka + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/app9102059

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Abstract

The article proposes the concept of modeling that uses multi-agent systems of mutual interactions between city residents as well as interactions between residents and spatial objects. Adopting this perspective means treating residents, as well as buildings or other spatial objects, as distinct agents that exchange multifaceted packages of information in a dynamic and non-linear way. The exchanged information may be reinforced or diminished during the process, which may result in changing the social activity of the residents. Utilizing Latour’s actor–network theory, the authors developed a model for studying the relationship between demographic and social factors, and the diversified spatial arrangement and the structure of a city. This concept was used to model the level of residents’ trust spatiotemporally and, indirectly, to study the level of social (geo)participation in a smart city. The devised system, whose test implementation as an agent-based system was done in the GAMA: agent-based, spatially explicit, modeling and simulation platform, was tested on both model and real data. The results obtained for the model city and the capital of Poland, Warsaw, indicate the significant and interdisciplinary analytical and scientific potential of the authorial methodology in the domain of geospatial science, geospatial data models with multi-agent systems, spatial planning, and applied social sciences.

Highlights

Many different disciplines use multi-agent systems as a research tool
The multi-agent system that models the process of changing the social engagement of residents, proposed by the authors of the article, is the main contribution to the scientific research integrating applied social sciences, geoinformation technologies, and multi-agent systems
The strength of the influence of individual actants—which is a result of various factors, such as the level of mutual trust or the identification with a given place or space—determines the strength of the relations

Summary

Introduction

Many different disciplines use multi-agent systems as a research tool. One of them is the analysis of social relations in the city, as well as the interaction between residents and spatial objects (the background of the research). The multi-agent system (in further parts of the paper, the authors use MAS abbreviation) that models the process of changing the social engagement of residents, proposed by the authors of the article, is the main contribution to the scientific research integrating applied social sciences, geoinformation technologies, and multi-agent systems. In his 2007 article [1], Michael F. Goodchild introduces the concept of social assembling of spatial information by users identified as specific human agents.

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