Agent-based modelling for exploring decentralised water management: Reflections on the process and experience

In this free seminar, Kavin will talk about their agent-based model called WATER user associations at the Interface of Nexus Governance (WATERING) developed to explore the functions, opportunities, and challenges of decentralised water management in Sub-Saharan Africa. She will talk about the background, motivation and implementation of WATERING, initial results obtained, and implications for decision-making on community-based water management. Kavin will briefly speak about validating agent-based models, potential challenges, and the participatory approach they used to assess the implementation and usefulness of WATERING. Participants will also be invited to trial and explore sub-models of WATERING – implemented as Reusable Building Blocks (RBBs) – to reflect how open and reproducible research practices can improve transparency and efficiency in agent-based modelling endeavours.

Dr Kavin Narasimhan is an ESRC Policy Fellow and Research Fellow based at the Centre for Research in Social Simulation at the University of Surrey.

Audience: anyone interested in seeing how ABM works in real world social science research