---
id: media/agent-based-models-of-geographical-systems
about:
  label: Agent-Based Models of Geographical Systems
  description: >-
    Edited volume from Heppenstall, Crooks, See and Batty, 2012, collecting the
    foundations, methods and applications of agent-based modelling of geographic
    systems.
  tags:
    - agent-based
    - geography
    - simulation
    - methods
    - edited volume
  depiction: cover.jpg
book:
  authors:
    - Alison J. Heppenstall (ed.)
    - Andrew T. Crooks (ed.)
    - Linda M. See (ed.)
    - Michael Batty (ed.)
  publisher: Springer
  year: 2012
  isbn: '9789048189267'
  url: 'https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-8927-4'
domains:
  - places
  - people
relations:
  - predicate: made_by
    target: people/alison-heppenstall
  - predicate: made_by
    target: people/andrew-crooks
  - predicate: made_by
    target: people/michael-batty
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: Agent-Based Models of Geographical Systems - Google Books
      url: 'https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9789048189267'
    - title: >-
        Crossref record for 10.1007/978-90-481-8927-4 (Agent-Based Models of
        Geographical Systems)
      url: 'https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1007/978-90-481-8927-4'
    - title: 'Open Library: Agent-Based Models of Geographical Systems'
      url: 'https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19825059W'
  created: '2026-10-17'
  reviewed: '2026-10-17'
  reviewed_by: 'Claude, from the sources listed'
  status: draft
---
The chapters come from many research groups, and the agents in them move through geographic space. An agent-based model simulates many individual actors, each following its own rules. The book covers foundations and theory, and the technical problems particular to spatial models, such as handling scale and space. It gives practical advice on building models and keeping their complexity under control, and on methods for visualising and checking results. Applications follow, at neighbourhood and regional scales. The intended readers are researchers and graduate students in geography and spatial analysis, and practitioners in neighbouring fields.

Place-scale twins that include people, vehicles or animals as individual actors are agent-based models of geographical systems, whether or not they use the name. The book sets out what is known about building such models well, and where the hard problems lie.

Cover via Open Library.