Human Terrain Data – What Should We Do With It?

Barry G. Silverman, University of Pennsylvania

Article comments

Postprint version. To be presented at Winter Simulation Conference '07, December 2007, 6 pages. Published at: http://www.wintersim.org/

Abstract

What are we in the Modeling & Simulation (M&S) community to do with the volumes of 'human terrain' data now being published by the military and others in databases of the demographics and needs/values/norms of populations of interest? This paper suggests that the M&S community would be remiss if it did not rise to this challenge and suggest next steps for the use of this Human Terrain (HT) data resource. These datasets are a key asset for those interested in synthesis of two major agent-based modeling paradigms – the cognitive and the social – as this paper argues. We pursue this argument with a case study integrating a cognitive agent environment (PMFserv) and a social agent environment (FactionSim) and applying them to various regions of interest (Iraq, SE Asia, Crusades) to assess their validity and realism.