Generation of Reusable Synthetic Population and Social Networks for Agent-Based Modeling

Abstract

Within agent-based models, agents interact with each other (e.g., social networks) and their environment, and it is through such interactions more aggregate patterns emerge (e.g., disease outbreaks, traffic jams). While the popularity of agent-based modeling has grown, one challenge remains, that of creating and sharing realistic synthetic populations which incorporate social networks. To overcome this challenge, this paper introduces a new approach that creates a reusable synthetic population using the New York Metro Area as a study area. Our method directly incorporates social networks (i.e., connections within a family or workplace) when creating a synthetic population. To demonstrate the utility and reusability of the synthetic population and to highlight the role of social networks, we show two example applications: traffic dynamics and the spread of a disease. These applications demonstrate how our synthetic population method can be easily utilized for different modeling problems.