Combining Object-Oriented Programming and Relational Databases for Multi-Scale Spatially- Integrated Agent-Based Models

Object-oriented (OO) programming has limitations when used to implement abstract multi-scale, spatially-integrated, agent-based models, that could potentially be addressed using relational databases (RDB). Although this would involve rethinking the approach to designing such models, the combined OORDB approach has a number of appealing advantages for multi-scale simulations, such as allowing the user rather than the programmer to specify the scale at which various land-use processes take place. It also provides a basis for a more realistic representation of the relationship between agents and their environment.