D.G. Webster (Environmental Studies), Xun Shi and Jonathan Chipman (Geography)
This working group brought together PIs and other researchers from several large-scale fisheries modeling projects with GIS and agent based modeling (ABM) experts from Dartmouth and elsewhere. Our goal was to advance combined GIS/ABM techniques generally and to improve on existing models of fisheries dynamics using these techniques.
Jenny Sun, D.G. Webster, Tim Lam, Dale Kiefer, and Zach Siegrist
Like many human-environment interactions, marine fishing involves social, economic, and spatial decision making in an inherently complex context. Detailed anthropological and economic studies provide information on how fishers make such decisions but we have little understanding about the aggregate effects of individual behavior in this context. Some emergent properties have already been documented using ABM in spatial contexts (see i.e. Boschetti (2007), Brede, Boschetti, and McDonald (2008), Dreyfus-leon and Gaertner (2006), Elliston and Cao (2006), Wilson, Yan, and Wilson (2007)). Due in large part to these promising results, researchers from different disciplines are interested in combining ABM models with GIS technology, which provides a platform for more detailed environmental data. At the same time, GIS experts can also envision benefits from incorporation of ABM into their work. Thus, the topic of this working group is timely.
Keeping in mind the intended scope and scale of Neukom Working Groups, we focused our efforts on GIS/ABM integration problems within two specific ecosystem contexts: the Gulf of Maine (GoM) and the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). To do this, we spent most of the time working on GIS/ABM integration in the Fishscape project, which models the fishery for tropical tunas in the EPO and is headed by PIs D.G. Webster (Dartmouth) and Dale Kiefer (USC), and the Seascape Modeling project, which models ecosystem dynamics in the Gulf of Maine and is headed by Andrew Pershing (Gulf of Maine Research Institute).
Dartmouth
D.G. Webster (Environmental Studies, political economy, tuna management, ABM, Fishscape)
Xun Shi (Geography, neural networks and GIS)
Jonathan Chipman (Geography, GIS)
Ross Jones (Fisheries ecology and law)
Marissa Greco (Research assistant, Fishscape)
USC
Dale Kiefer (Biology, physical oceanography, fisheries, GIS, Fishscape)
Zach Seigrist (Programmer, GIS, Fishscape)
Tim Lam (actually at WHOI, tuna tracking & GIS)
University of Maine, Orono
James Wilson (Complex systems modeling, ABM, fisheries, coupled human and natural systems)
Ted Ames (Fisherman and historical fisheries ecology researcher)
Peter Hayes (Graduate student, agent based modeling and fisheries)
Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Jenny Sun (Fisheries economics and markets, especially tuna, Fishscape)
Sigrid Lehuta (Post doc, ecological and economic modeling in fisheries)
Will Bowman (Intern)
