Towards reusable building blocks for agent-based modelling and theory development

Reusable building blocks (RBB) describe individual mechanisms or processes, distinguishing them from modules that represent entire subsystems. They are effective in software development but are underrepresented in agent-based modelling. Our colleagues Uta Berger and Marie-Christin Wimmler now present, together with many more collaborators, the first website that demonstrates how an RBB template and repository can be organized. In their new article, they provide examples to illustrate the concept, fostering discussion and encouraging further refinement. After a critical mass of candidate RBBs has accumulated, the community will benefit from increased coherence, facilitating the development of theory for both the behaviour of agents and the systems they form. Peers are now invited to familiarize themselves with the concept and to upload and share their RBBs via the website https://www.rbb4abm.com/ - preferably also referenced by a DOI (digital object identifier obtained e.g. via Zenodo). With this approach, Uta Berger and colleagues propose and initiate a strategy for community-based development, sharing and use of RBBs that can overcome the issues underlying traditional model development from scratch.

Uta Berger, Andrew Bell, C. Michael Barton, Emile Chappin, Gunnar Dreßler, Tatiana Filatova, Thibault Fronville, Allen Lee, Emiel van Loon, Iris Lorscheid, Matthias Meyer, Birgit Müller, Cyril Piou, Viktoriia Radchuk, Nicholas Roxburgh, Lennart Schüler, Christian Troost, Nanda Wijermans, Tim G. Williams, Marie-Christin Wimmler, Volker Grimm (2024): Towards reusable building blocks for agent-based modelling and theory development, Environmental Modelling & Software 175, 106003.