This book provides a comprehensive view of the field of geographical modeling by dividing the topic into three parts. The first part of the work establishes the foundations of geographical modeling through the use of more general concepts, including: structure, organization, system, geometries, topologies, metrics, material, and object. Finally, introduction of the concept of time leads to the theories of process and spatial interaction, which are fundamental in geography. The second part of the book tackles the use of computer tools for dynamic model building, which are the geographic cellular automata (GCA), and presents several models applied to various themes, such as urban growth, natural risks by flood simulations, as well as more political themes, such as the use of European funds, or the development of voting patterns in France. Finally, a general model of the geographic agents system (GAS) which can be used as a basis for the construction of a model-building platform for dynamic spatial models is presented.

This book provides a comprehensive view of the field of geographical modeling by dividing the topic into three parts.The first part of the work establishes the foundations of geographical modeling through the use of more general concepts, including: structure, organization, system, geometries, topologies, metrics, material, and object. Finally, introduction of the concept of time leads to the theories of process and spatial interaction, which are fundamental in geography.The second part of the book tackles the use of computer tools for dynamic model building, which are the geographic cellular automata (GCA), and presents several models applied to various themes, such as urban growth, natural risks by flood simulations, as well as more political themes, such as the use of European funds, or the development of voting patterns in France.Finally, a general model of the geographic agents system (GAS) which can be used as a basis for the construction of a model-building platform for dynamic spatial models is presented.

General Introduction xiPART 1. THE STRUCTURE OF THE GEOGRAPHIC SPACE 1Part 1. Introduction 3Chapter 1. Structure and System Concepts 51.1. The notion of structure 51.2. The systemic paradigm 101.3. The notion of organization 13Chapter 2. Space and Geometry 292.1. Different theories of space 292.2. Geometry and its data structures 432.3. "Neat" geometry and "fuzzy"geometry 60Chapter 3. Topological Structures: How Objects are Organizedin Spatial Systems 673.1. Topology 673.2. Metrics and topologies 683.3. Calculated topology, structural topology 713.4. Hierarchization 78Chapter 4. Matter and Geographical Objects 794.1. Geographic matter 794.2. The notion of observation 824.3. The geographic object: Definitions and principles 84Chapter 5. Time and Dynamics 975.1. Time 975.2. Temporalities 1005.3. Events, processes 1055.4. Decomposition of a complex process 1155.5. An epistemic choice: reciprocal dependency between thecomplexity levels of a phenomenon 117Chapter 6. Spatial Interaction 1216.1. Presentation of the concept 1216.2. Definition of macroscopic interaction 1256.3. The four elementary (inter)actions 1276.4. Microscopic interaction like a multigraph 1286.5. Composition of successive interactions 1306.6. The configurations and the trajectories of a simulation arecategories 1316.7. Intermediary level matrix representation 1336.8. Examples of interactions 1346.9. First definition of the notion of spatial system 138Part 1. Conclusion: Stages of the Ontogenesis 141PART 2. MODELING THROUGH CELLULAR AUTOMATA 145Chapter 7. Concept and Formalization of a CA 1477.1. Cellular automata paradigm 1487.2. Notion of finite-state automata 1507.3. Mealy and Moore automata 1517.4. A simple example of CA: the game of life 1527.5. Different decompositions of the functions of a cell 1537.6. Threshold automaton, window automaton 1557.7. Micro level and Stochastic automaton 1567.8. Macro level and deterministic automaton 1567.9. General definition of a geographic cellular automaton1577.10. Different scheduling regimes of the internal tasks of thesystem 1607.11. Ports, channels, encapsulation 1627.12. Interaction 1647.13. Space associated with a geographic cellular automaton1687.14. Topology and neighborhood operator of a GCA 1687.15. The notion of cellular layer 1687.16. Hierarchized GCA models 169Chapter 8. Examples of Geographic Cellular Automaton Models1718.1. SpaCelle, multi-layer cellular automaton 1728.2. Example: the evolution model of the Rouen agglomeration1818.3. RuiCells 1898.4. GeoCells 207Part 2. Conclusion 235PART 3. A GENERAL MODEL OF GEOGRAPHIC AGENT SYSTEMS237Part 3. Introduction 239Chapter 9. Theoretical Approach of an Integrated SimulationPlatform 2419.1. For an integrated platform of simulation 2419.2. General specifications 242Chapter 10. A Formal Ontology of Geographic Agent Systems24510.1. The conceptual framework 24510.2. The notion of a geographic agent system 24710.3. A generalization of the notion of process 24910.4. The notion of a geographic agent 25010.5. The formalization of the notion of organization 25810.6. The formalization of behavior 26810.7. Formalization of a general AOC model 27910.8. The Schelling model example 280Part 3. Conclusion 283General Conclusion 285Acronyms 291Bibliography 293Index 299