The AtollGame Experience: from Knowledge Engineering to a Computer-Assisted Role Playing Game
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
vol. 9, no. 1
<https://www.jasss.org/9/1/6.html>
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Received: 30-May-2005 Accepted: 18-Nov-2005 Published: 31-Jan-2006
Figure 1. Map of the atoll of Tarawa. Bonriki and Buota islands located on the lower right side of the map |
Figure 2. Sequence of knowledge acquisition |
Figure 3. Elder man in Abatao commenting photos on economic activities |
Figure 4. Example of Card Game's flowchart. Including: natural water cycle elements (pink), human activity elements (green), and institutional elements (orange) |
Figure 5. Qualrus© coding view with narrative (left) and codes (right) |
Figure 6. Partial view over an Associative network. Codes and links are individually labelled |
Figure 7. Overall table ranking most quoted elements during the card game |
Figure 8. UML-based Class Diagram representation of the common ontology |
Figure 9. UML Class Diagram of the ABM simulator, built with Visual Paradigm© |
The model contains one elementary spatial entity — the AtollCell — that encapsulates some of the characteristics of the groundwater lens (ie. depth, quality) at the unit level. The Lens aggregate, built from the AtollCells, depicts more larger-scale properties such as groundwater loss and recharge. The Island entity (specialised into Tarawa and Reserve), also based on aggregation of elementary cells, provides global characteristics such as rainfall and potential evapotranspiration (PET).
Figure 10. AtollGame environment with top island featuring Water Reserve and pumping stations, and bottom island featuring a water distribution pipe. Triangles represent the landowners (in purple) and their relatives (in red) |
Figure 11. Representation of the freshwater lens in AtollGame. Nuclei and izopiezometric areas (left), and corresponding volume (right) |
For a given land plot, the freshwater thickness is given by the attribute depth. The hydrogeological model calculates each individual depth after averaging inputs and outputs over the whole freshwater lens. This attribute is then used to specify the water quality by updating the land plot's attribute "wellWaterQuality" according to a simple rule: if the depth is lower than 1.6m, the water is considered salty, if the depth is higher than 3.1m the water is considered fresh, and in between the water is declared brackish. Hence, the simulator offers a simplified formalism of the biophysical processes involving water resources. However, the water balance model has been built and validated with the help of relevant experts.
Figure 12. Players interacting with the simulator during a session |
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