ABMUS2021: Workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Urban Systems

2021 Programme and Proceedings

The proceedings for ABMUS 2020 (postponed due to the pandemic) and ABMUS 2021 are now available with DOI 10.6084/m9.figshare.14579604.v1.

The introduction to the workshop, presented by Minh Kieu, is available here

Time	Talk	Authors

18:00	Welcome

18:05	Exploring the emergence of learned behaviour from intelligent agents in a constrained 3D spatial environment	Sedar Olmez, Alison Heppenstall and Daniel Birks
18:15	Simulating the Physical, Cognitive, and Social: a Multi-Level Approach	Chaminda Bulumulla, Dhirendra Singh, Lin Padgham and Jeffrey Chan
18:25	Multi-level Agent-Based Simulation for Supporting Transit-Oriented Development in Beijing	Liu Yang, Koen van Dam, Bani Anvari and Lufeng Zhang
18:35	Simulating SIGChain: Microgrid Agent transactions with a Lightweight Blockchain	Noria Foukia
18:45	Multiscale Data Integration and Modeling for Understanding Vulnerability During Disasters	Anna Brower, Julia Gohlke, Benjamin Zaitchik and Samarth Swarup
18:55	Questions and discussion

19:15	Break

19:25	Toward phygital agent-based interactive simulations to support urban planning	Gary Perelman, Frédéric Amblard, Emmanuel Dubois, Benoit Gaudou, Elsy Kaddoum, Marc Mequignon, Cédric Sanza, Marcos Serrano, Antonio Serpa and Nicolas Verstaevel
19:35	Simulating the transition of mobility toward smart and sustainable cities	Jean-François Erdelyi, Carole Adam, Benoit Gaudou, Franck Taillandier and Nicolas Verstaevel
19:45	Sharing green spaces at the Umeå academic campus	Cezara Pastrav, Maarten Jensen, Rene Mellema, Christian Kammler and Frank Dignum
19:55	Integrated Agent-based and System Dynamics Modeling of the Spatial Diffusion of Home-based Decentralized Water Technologies and the Impacts on the Water System	Yue Li, Masoumeh Khalkhali, Weiwei Mo and Zhongming Lu
20:05	Using the COMOKIT model to study the impact of the morpho-functional organization of cities on the spread of COVID-19	Kevin Chapuis, Patrick Taillandier, Benoit Gaudou, Arthur Brugière, Alexis Drogoul, Alessandro Araldi and Giovanni Fusco
20:15	Questions and discussion

20:30	Closing remarks and next steps
20:45	Networking & discussion activities

About ABMUS

ABMUS is a workshop where urban and geo-spatial models get together in a focused session, during the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS). The ABMUS2021 workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Urban Systems will be held at 18:00-21:00 BST on 4th May 2021 as part of the AAMAS2021 conference. In 2021 the conference was due to take place in London, but due to the pandemic the conference and the AMBUS workshop will be held virtually.

The central goal of this workshop is to bring together the community of researchers and practitioners who use agent-based models and multi-agent systems to understand and manage cities and urban infrastructure systems. Through the exchange of ideas and state-of-the-art within this area, we will pool together current thinking to discuss avenues of fruitful research and methodological challenges we face in building robust, realistic, and trusted models of urban systems.

ABMUS2021: 'Multi-level Modelling'

We invite submissions from researchers and practitioners who use agent-based models and agent systems to understand, explore, and manage cities and urban infrastructure systems. The overarching theme for 2021 is multi-level modelling, and will also feature a special track on the use of agent-based simulation to help study mitigation strategies for Covid-19 and scenarios for a post-Covid world including behaviour change and city planning.

This year, we invite presentations that describe how researchers chose spatial and temporal scales for their modelled system, and how this links to analysis at other levels of representation and abstraction. We will discuss challenges associated with model development, data interoperability, consistent representation of space and time, as well as developments in interfaces and stakeholder engagement. Papers may include, but are not limited, to the following topics:

Large scale urban simulation applications
Spatially explicit micro-simulation modelling
Agent-based modelling of urban transport, land-use, housing, energy, health, etc.
Localized population synthesis
Multi-scale urban systems (temporal and spatial)
The impact of COVID-19 on cities and mitigation strategies analysed using agent simulation
Model development and co-development processes and protocols
Data structures for simulating urban environments
Connection of simulation models to social and geographical theory
Government and industry engagement in model development and uptake
Modelling, and model co-development, to provide decision support and enhance decision-making in urban systems
Development in model interfaces and engagement that enhance model uptake
Internet of Things (IoT), open data and data interoperability for modelling

The workshop recognises the importance of allowing delegates the opportunity to discuss the topics and so mixes short paper presentations with longer discussions and questions. If accepted, each presenter will be given a short time slot (max 10 minutes) to introduce their paper and/or case study, followed by 5-10 minutes in which presenters will share their views on the multi-level modelling theme. After three presentations there will be 20-30 minutes of discussion in which presenters will act as panel members in direct discussion with the ABMUS audience. In 20201 the AAMAS conference, and the AMBUS workshop, will be held virtually.

Papers should be submitted as an extended abstract (2-4 pages) through Easy Chair (details below).

For more information please contact:

Minh Le Kieu -- M.L.Kieu@leeds.ac.uk
Koen van Dam -- k.van-dam@imperial.ac.uk
Jason Thompson -- jason.thompson@unimelb.edu.au

Submission and important dates

How to submit a paper

Participants are invited to submit an extended abstract (2-4 pages) describing their work on one or more of the topics relevant to the workshop. Your abstract should include a title as well as all authors and affiliations. It should articulate the objectives of the paper and provide a brief but thorough description of the research related to the theme of the workshop and the expected gain by those attending the presentation. Accepted authors will be invited to submit a full paper after the workshop to be included in the post-workshop proceedings. All submissions to the workshop will be reviewed by the organising committee and program committee, with at least two independent reviews per paper.

Authors are requested to prepare their papers by following the LNCS Springer instructions, preferably using the LaTeX template provided but an MS Word template is also available.

All papers must be submitted through the workshop's EasyChair page:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=abmus2021

Important dates

~~23 February~~ 5 March 2021: extended (final) deadline for abstract submissions
31 March 2021: Notification of acceptance following the review process
30 April 2021: Deadline for submitting camera-ready papers for inclusion in the pre-proceedings
4th May 2021: ABMUS workshop (18:00-21:00 BST)
Following the workshop, invitation for full papers (see below)

In parallel to the ABMUS workshop we are organising a special issue in Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. All authors are encouraged to submit their original work for review while an extended abstract of the work can be presented at ABMUS2021. For more information about the special issue please see the CEUS special issue website

Organisation

The organising committee consists of:

Dr Minh Le Kieu, University of Auckland
Dr Koen H. van Dam, Imperial College London
Dr Jason Thompson, University of Melbourne
Prof Nick Malleson, University of Leeds
Prof Alison Heppenstall, University of Leeds
Dr Jiaqi Ge, University of Leeds

The members of the scientific committee will be confirmed as soon as possible.

Proceedings and special issues

All accepted extended abstracts will be made available in the pre-proceedings. Please note that at least one author must register for the workshop in order for a paper to appear in the workshop proceedings. After the conference all presenters will be invited to submit a full paper for the ABMUS2021 proceedings to appear as a special issue with the journal Computers Environment and Urban Systems

Previous ABMUS workshops

Previously, ABMUS2016 was held in Singapore during AAMAS2016 on the 10th of May 2016, ABMUS2017 was held in Sao Paulo during AAMAS2017 on the 8th of May 2017 and afterwards ABMUS2018 was held in Stockholm during the Federated AI Meeting (FAIM2018) which included the AAMAS2018 conference and IJCAI-ECAI (International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence). In 2019, ABMUS2019 took place at AAMAS2019 in Montreal, Canada on the 14th of May 2019. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the 2020 workshop (which should have taken place as part of the AAMAS2020 conference in Aukland 9-13 May) was canceled.