Agent-Based Models as an Integrating Boundary Object for Interdisciplinary Research on Coastal System Dynamics

Abstract:

Increasingly, there is agreement that to understand and solve the most pressing social, environmental, and economic challenges in the Coastal US will require a synthesis of knowledge from numerous disciplines. These disciplines range from anthropology to coastal engineering to environmental science. Unfortunately, these disciplines lack a common knowledge base and lexicon, and this can quickly lead to confusion, clashes, and ultimately, unsuccessful outcomes. One way to overcome come this challenge and to encourage participation is to have a common model, or boundary object, that can integrate knowledge from numerous disciplines. This also can be a vehicle to enable more productive communication and encourage researchers to work toward a shared goal.

This talk will focus on two complementary discussions: the requirements for useful boundary objects in the fields of disaster and coastal science (ABMs) and results from a large interdisciplinary study exploring how the vulnerability of coastal communities may evolve over time under different climate conditions and hurricane scenarios. The work on boundary objects identifies four requirements and demonstrates how agent-based modeling uniquely satisfies these requirements. The discussion will then turn to a multi-year interdisciplinary coastal vulnerability study in which used agent-based models as its boundary object. Researchers from economics, civil and coastal engineering, climate science, and behavioral science each contributed modules to an agent-based model focusing on coastal community dynamics with particular attention paid to its building stock. We demonstrate how various choices that individuals make with regards to mitigation in response to their hazard environments could create drastically different outcomes for regional vulnerability. This is useful for local and state governments for understanding when and how to target interventions for reducing regional vulnerability to hurricanes.