Integrating Agent Models of Subsistence Farming With Dynamic Models of Water Distribution

HR: 1340h
AN: SF33A-0725 [Abstracts]
TI: Integrating Agent Models of Subsistence Farming With Dynamic Models of Water Distribution
AU: * Bithell, M
EM: mike.bithell@geog.cam.ac.uk
AF: Department of Geography, University of Cambridge Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN United Kingdom
AU: Brasington, J
EM: james.brasington@geog.cam.ac.uk
AF: Department of Geography, University of Cambridge Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN United Kingdom
AB: Subsistence farming communities are dependent on the landscape to provide the resource base upon which their societies can be built. A key component of this is the role of climate, and the feedback between rainfall, crop growth and land clearance, and their coupling to the hydrological cycle. Temporal fluctuations in rainfall on timescales from annual through to decadal and longer, and the associated changes in in the spatial distribution of water availability mediated by the soil-type, slope and landcover determine the locations within the landscape that can support agriculture, and control sustainability of farming practices. We seek to make an integrated modelling system to represent land use change by coupling an agent based model of subsistence farming, and the associated exploitation of natural resources, to a realistic representation of the hydrology at the catchment scale, using TOPMODEL to map the spatial distribution of crop water stress for given time-series of rainfall. In this way we can, for example, investigate how demographic changes and associated removal of forest cover influence the possibilities for field locations within the catchment, through changes in ground water availability. The framework for this modelling exercise will be presented and preliminary results from this system will be discussed.
DE: 9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings)
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
DE: 1832 Groundwater transport
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 1884 Water supply
SC: Special Focus: Advances in Data Acquisition, Management, Analysis and Display [SF]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting