Agent Based Software System to Support Exploration of Climate Change Adaptation

This document is a progress report for the project titled “Agent Based SW System to support exploration of Climate Change Adaptation”. It addresses the period 23 March 2009 until 23 June 2009. This report outlines work relevant to Deliverable 1: Framework Design and Implementation. It also highlights some exploratory work related to future stages of the project. 1 Deliverable 1: Framework We have designed and largely implemented a framework which utilises the gaming environment provided by Civilization IV as the basis of an extensible system which could be used to support exploration of Climate Change Adaptation via plugging in appropriate modules. Civilization IV is a turn based game in which each player is the controller of the cities in a civilization, or nation. Each of the civilizations coexist within a common 3D virtual world with different terrain and geographical features. Civilizations can interact with each other through trade, war or migration. The cities consist of resources, citizens, buildings and units, all of which can be manipulated by the player or by external modules which operate within the game. Our framework allows plug-in modules of different timescale and fidelity, as well as different paradigms, to simulate aspects of the city and allow a player to explore the effects of their actions.