Abstract

Multi-agent modelling of impacts from the blue-green algae event in taihu lake on employees' income levels in Wuxi city

Author(s): Fuhua Sun, Juqin Shen, Li Xu, Gaoyan Xu, Bo Liu1, Jian Ji

This paper develops a multi-agent model that aims to recognise the interaction between an event and people's income levels and to simulate the impact of the blue-green algae bloom event in Taihu Lake on people's income levels in Wuxi City. This research lays a foundation for a further monetary measurement of the social influence of the blue-green algae bloom event in Taihu Lake. To explore the model, the JAVA programming language is used to take advantage of the Repast Simphony toolkit. The results show that the model is capable of reflecting the impacts of this event on people's income levels. More specifically, people's total income levels in the city first decreased due to the effects of the event. Then, incomes returned gradually to normal levels, benefiting from the implementation of governmental measures for Green Industry Development and reemployment. Next, using a Cosine Similarity analysis, it is found that the simulation results are in accordance with the outcomes of our field surveys, which indicates that the agent-based modelling approach is appropriate for studying the impacts of sudden water pollution events on people's income.