ABE minimal setup

Due to the rather complex nature of most interesting study landscapes, setting up ABE appropriately can be quite demanding. It is considerably less hard, if a “running” ABE is required for testing or getting-started purposes only. However, even the setup of a “minimal ABE” requires a couple of steps, that are covered in this page.

The absolute minimum setup for ABE is quite simple:

A stand grid containing numeric Ids for “polygons” (such a grid is likely already used, e.g. for stand initialization, see landscape setup.
A file stating the “ownership” structure of the landscape, i.e. it links each polygon of the stand grid to a management program (or management unit and a managing agent) (see ABE spatial setup)
A Javascsript file that contains the code of ABE. This file needs to include at least a basic definition of a stand treatment program.
Set up ABE in the project file

The following R code shows how a minimal “abeDataFile” can be created from a GIS raster. This basically is a list of all stands and a associated stand treatment program (with the name ‘stp’ - see below).

n <- raster("path/to/standgrid.txt")
ids <- unique(n) ##
abedata <- data.frame(id=ids[ids>0], stp="stp")
write.table(abedata, file="path/to/abedata.csv", row.names=F)

The minimal Javascript for ABE without defining an agent (and using the default agent of iLand:

// minimal  stand treatment program
// define a program and register it in the model under the name 'stp'
fmengine.addManagement({ U: 100, // rotation age
            options: {}, // no options
            activity: { type: 'custom',  …. }
, 'stp');

If you want to have more control and create your own agent, the code becomes a bit longer:

// minimal  stand treatment program
var stp = { U: 100, // hshort/normal/long rotation age
            options: {}, // no options
activity: { type: 'custom',  …. }
};

// register the stand treatment program stp with the name 'stp'
fmengine.addManagement(stp , 'stp');

// minimal agent type
var base_agent = {
scheduler: { enabled: false },

stp: {  'stp': 'stp', 'default': 'stp'},
onSelect: function() { return 'stp'; },
run: function() { console.log('base-agent run called'); }
};

// register the agent program and provide a name
fmengine.addAgent(base_agent, 'agent');

In the project file, ABE must be enabled:

true   abe/abe.js   abe/abedata.csv

citation

Rammer, W., Seidl, R., 2015. Coupling human and natural systems: Simulating adaptive management agents in dynamically changing forest landscapes. Global Environmental Change, 35, 475-485.