TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2012//
TI  - Model reduction for agent-based social simulation: Coarse-graining a civil violence model
JO  - Physical review E: Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
A1  - Zou, Yu
A1  - Fonoberov, Vladimir A.
A1  - Fonoberova, Maria
A1  - Mezic, Igor
A1  - Kevrekidis, Ioannis G.
SP  - 
EP  - 
VL  - 85
IS  - 6
N2  - Agent-based modeling (ABM) constitutes a powerful computational tool for the exploration of phenomena involving emergent dynamic behavior in the social sciences. This paper demonstrates a computer-assisted approach that bridges the significant gap between the single-agent microscopic level and the macroscopic (coarse-grained population) level, where fundamental questions must be rationally answered and policies guiding the emergent dynamics devised. Our approach will be illustrated through an agent-based model of civil violence. This spatiotemporally varying ABM incorporates interactions between a heterogeneous population of citizens [active (insurgent), inactive, or jailed] and a population of police officers. Detailed simulations exhibit an equilibrium punctuated by periods of social upheavals. We show how to effectively reduce the agent-based dynamics to a stochastic model with only two coarse-grained degrees of freedom: the number of jailed citizens and the number of active ones. The coarse-grained model captures the ABM dynamics while drastically reducing the computation time (by a factor of approximately 20).  2012 American Physical Society.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 1539-3755
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.85.066106
ID  - ref1
ER  -