@article{39236,
  keywords = {computer-aided analysis, diffusion maps, field model, segregation},
  author = {Yu Zou and Vladimir Fonoberov and Maria Fonoberova and Igor Mezic and Ioannis Kevrekidis},
  title = {Model reduction for agent-based social simulation: Coarse-graining a civil violence model},
  abstract = { <p>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).</p> },
  year = {2012},
  journal = {Physical Review E},
  volume = {85},
  pages = {066106},
  month = {06/2012},
  isbn = {1539-3755},
  language = {English},
}