RomainCR-git/ABM_BD_Health

An agent-based model representing the dynamics conencting biodiversity and nutrition through land and natural resources use in rural Eastern Madagascar. Model Overview This agent-based model simulates interactions between smallholder farmers, land use, and ecosystem services in a rural landscape of Eastern Madagascar. The model investigates how different agricultural practices and forest conservation levels affect food security, agricultural productivity, and biodiversity over time. Key Features Agents: Represent individual farming households practicing shifting cultivation, lowland rice farming, or agroforestry. Landscape: A grid of 0.1-ha patches with land-use types and ecological properties (e.g. soil fertility, biodiversity). Processes: Annually simulated dynamics include population growth, land-use planning, agricultural production, harvesting with biotic and abiotic disruptions, foraging, fallow recovery, and nutritional assessments. Disruptions: Harvest losses from climate and pests are modeled stochastically using exponential distributions, modulated by ecosystem regulation services. Feedbacks: Farmers adapt decisions based on previous yields, forest conservation rules, and ecosystem service levels. Food security outcomes feed back into land-use decisions. Purpose The model helps explore trade-offs and synergies among biodiversity conservation, agricultural production, and human nutrition under varying conservation policies and farming strategies. Details: See the ODD file for a detailed description of the model