Everything is related to everything else? This core principle of spatial analysis is equally true for the temporal domain: history matters! Together, the two dimensions of space and time build the spatio-temporal context of our environment. Whereas GIS has focussed primarily on the spatial perspective, there is a clear trend towards the incorporation of time. Dynamic models on the other side have for a long time ignored space. Only since a few decades a new theory of "complex systems" explicitly includes spatial heterogeneity. Therefore, spatial simulation models are fundamentally new tools to study systems from a truly spatio-temporal perspective. Topics that have been successfully addressed with spatial simulation models include biological applications (e.g. predator-prey models, habitat models, emergence of territories), geomorphological applications (e.g. hydrological models and fluvial erosion), heuristic algorithms (e.g. ant algorithm to solve shortest-path problems) and transport models. The software that will be used for model development is GAMA. GAMA stands for "GIS and Agent-Based Modeling Architecture". It is an open source programming framework that was specifically developed for the design and the implementation of spatially explicit simulation models.
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