RE: GIS and Swarm

[Kostas Alexandridis]

        We are using GIS data with Swarm, for a year now. We use both
ArcGIS 8.1 and ArcView 3.3 for parcel-based databases integration with
Swarm. In addition ArcInfo conversion utilities are used for transfering
raster data to and from ASCII format for Swarm. You can download a small
video of our MABEL model in www.mabel.msu.edu/newmovie.mpg, for some
pilot-project areas. Each pilot area is 3x3 mi in a 10x10 m raster data
resolution, and contains from 80-300 initial agents.
        Also, a paper on MABEL, presented on the 2nd World Congress of
Environmental Economists, is available through Ag Econ Search:
http://agecon.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/detailview.pl?paperid=4834. We are
working on a two more papers on the decision-making proccess - one of
them is going to be available very soon.
        Perhaps establishing a communication via Swarm-GIS sounds like a
good idea.

Kostas Alexandridis 
Human-Environment Modeling & Analysis Facility (HEMA) 
Regional Environmental & Geospatial Analysis Laboratory 
Michigan State University 
202 Manly Miles Building 
1405 South Harrison, East Lansing, MI 48824 
Tel: (517) 432-2948 
Fax: (517) 432-2762 
www.mabel.msu.edu  



-----Original Message-----
From: address@hidden
[mailto:address@hidden On Behalf Of M Lang / S
Railsback
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 9:30 AM
To: address@hidden
Subject: Re: GIS and Swarm


Li An wrote:
> 
> Thanks. Can Swarm work with Arc/Info data directly without converting
> data to matrix format? There should be a study group with focus on the

> integration of GIS and Swarm--anyone knows where it is? Thanks a lot. 
> Li

Yes there *should* be a GIS-Swarm working group, and there are a few
people doing things. Hopefully Paul Box will also address your question
- he seems to be the most active in using GIS data in Swarm. See:
http://www.gis.usu.edu/swarm/index.html

I have only a bit of experience but:  GIS data are usually in a format
with 3 numbers per row: X, Y, value. It is very easy in Swarm to read
such files and create an object in a Swarm Grid2D object for each row. 

We have a code class that reads in a GIS file where the X and Y values
are UTM coordinates, does some transformations on the coordinates, and
creates a grid cell object in a Grid2d for each row of the GIS file. The
transformations are necessary because you want the Grid2D coordinates to
start at zero, and because Y coordinates increase south to north in UTM
but vice versa in Swarm's display classes. 

I'd be happy to send our code but I suspect Paul Box has something
similar and cleaner. 

Steve R.

-- 
address@hidden
Lang, Railsback & Assoc.
250 California Ave., Arcata CA 95521
707-822-0453; Fax 822-1868

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