OR/16/022 Introduction
| Beriro, D, Cave, M, Wragg, J and Hughes, A. 2016. Agent Based Modelling: Initial assessment for use on soil bioaccessibility. British Geological Survey Internal Report, OR/16/022. |
BGS holds a significant number of spatial datasets including soil geochemistry for England. BGS also has a track record in measuring and modelling the human ingestion bioaccessibility of potentially harmful substances (PHS) in soil, in particular undertaking laboratory experiments to simulate the human digestive system (in vitro). Bioaccessibility is an estimate of the amount of PHS released from soil once ingested (a common and accepted characteristic of children who play in gardens and parks). This is important because human health risk assessments for the presence of natural or anthropogenic PHS in soil are overly conservative, which can lead to unnecessary costly remediation as part of land use planning and redevelopment. Consequently, BGS research on the bioaccessibility of PHS has led to an internationally recognised body of knowledge on the fate and transport of PHS in soil and in the human body. However it is felt that there are limitations to this work and it would benefit from being able to ‘mobilise’ the digestive system, i.e. move people (and their stomachs) around a contaminated landscape so that PHS intake and uptake and its interaction with the environment can be modelled. The ability to move people as receptors around a landscape has the potential to improve the understanding of the impact of decision-making with respect to contaminated land and its use and clean up.
The activity reported here is part of the Integrated Modelling and Uncertainty team’s tasks during FY2015-6. The work is designed to answer the question ‘Is Agent Based Modelling (ABM) useful for extending the work of bioaccessibility and environmental interaction?’. In order to explore the potential of ABM to support research on the human ingestion bioaccessibility of PHS in soil, three software applications for undertaking ABM have been trialled (NetLogo, repast-simphony and insight-maker) on a simple example and assessed for further work.