Modeling and simulation of complex systems

Modeling and simulation of complex systems

Complex systems are composed of many qualitatively different elements, related in diverse ways and which, as a totality, exhibit properties that are not directly deducible from the properties of the individual elements.A fundamental problem of these systems is the difficulty involved in their modeling, which justifies an interdisciplinary mathematical and computational context. Activity in this context in the research group includes modeling based on:

• Equations, also known under the name of system dynamics, which uses differential equations and/or difference equations to model the passage of time or any other type of evolutionary process.
• Agents, which uses a computational model that allows the simulation of actions and interactions of autonomous individuals within an environment, and makes it possible to determine what effects they produce in the system as a whole.
• Complex networks, which draws heavily on empirical findings from real-world networks such as computer, biological, technological, brain or social networks.

At CITES all these methodologies are used to analyze areas as diverse as:

• The impact of climate change and socio-economic systems on winter tourism, hydrological systems or on the ecology of forest fires.
• The evolution of technological innovations.
• Obsolescence in energy infrastructures.
• Energy consumption in mountain road transport.
• The evaluation of development and needs on a human scale.
• Transdisciplinarity in higher education.
• The evaluation of diversity in urban and built spaces and its interaction with happiness.