It is assumed that Agent-Based Modeling is a useful technique for water management issues. In particular, it may provide a suitable framework for representing irrigated systems. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate its potential for a specific use: research on irrigated systems’ viability in the Senegal River Valley. The main assumption to be verified is that Multi-Agent Systems constitute a suitable architecture to study theoretically irrigated systems’ viability using simulations. By using Multi-Agent Systems, virtual irrigated systems can be designed that might then be used as virtual laboratories. These virtual labs constitute an alternative when real labs cannot exist for some reason.
In this paper we report on experiments we have conducted using such virtual labs for exploring an Agent-Based Model through the simulation of scenarios. A scenario is defined as a triplet: an environment, a set of individual rules, a set of collective rules. It is evaluated according to the longevity of the irrigated system. An index is defined, based on the ratio of long-enduring simulations among a set of repetitions of a given scenario. Even if simulation results display significant diversity for a given scenario due to random factors in the processes simulated, the ratio of long-enduring simulations is repeatable. This entails to explore the overall behavior of the virtual irrigated system and to build theories concerning the viability of Senegalese irrigated systems. An example is given showing the need for strong coherence for a given environment among individual rules and collective rules. 相似文献
In most cases, when calculating soil water availability, only thewater content is considered. The effect of salinity on the wiltingpoint is neglected. The objective of this work is to use asimulation model (CERES-maize) in order to predict cornyields as a function of water salinity under severalenvironmental, agrotechnical, and plant characteristics. A modelis presented in which the wilting point is a function of the soilsalt content. At high salinity, the water content at wilting pointis higher than at low salinity, resulting in an insufficient amountof available water and, therefore, a reduced yield. The modelwas used to simulate several theoretical and experimentalsituations for forage corn and grain corn. Simulation resultsshowed that nitrogen fertilization increases the salinity thresholdvalue and the yield sensitivity (rate of yield reduction per unitof salinity). The also showed that forage corn is more sensitiveto salinity than grain corn. If the soil is not leached, a heaviersoil texture has a higher salinity threshold value. On the otherhand, if the soil is leached, the soil texture has no influence onthe salinity threshold value and the yield is less sensitive tosalinity in sandy soils. The determination coefficient (r2= 0.75) indicated that the results of the simulations were in goodagreement with the field data. 相似文献