"It's Complex: Future of Modelling and Simulation in a Changing Geospatial Data Environment"
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The increasing availability of large, dynamic Geospatial datasets (where information is captured from a multitude of satellite-borne and spatially distributed terrestrial sensors) creates tremendous opportunities and challenges for understanding complex systems and feedbacks. However, new and innovative methods are required to usefully utilize this torrent of information. And since much of current geospatial research relies on simple models with relatively little data assimilation, any new paradigm also carries significant data and computational demands. Thus, I will focus on how complex system analysis methods and simulations (e.g., Agent Based Models (ABM), Spatial Social Networks (SSN), and spatially distributed Sensor Networks) can evolve concurrently in an attempt to better capture the inherent complexity of human-environment interactions that occur within a spatial framework. Specifically, ABMs of primate movements, SSNs of conservation workers, and a sensor network for measuring Urban Heat Island effects, will be highlighted. Furthermore, the final part of the lecture will focus on the possible synergistic collaborations to develop a WICI node in Montreal.
