After the 2007 Kenyan election results were announced, riots erupted in the Kibera slum of Nairobi. Pires and Crooks (2017) created a model in MASON to capture the complex, nonlinear nature of riots as shown below. By using geographic information systems and social network analysis coupled with an agentbased cognitive framework grounded in theory they were able to model the emergence of riots. Results from the model showed how the youth were most susceptible to rioting, and how by increasing education and employment opportunities for the inhabitants of the slum had nonlinear affects on rioting.
Graphical user interface of the Riot model based on the Kibera slum of Nairobi. From Top Left clockwise: Spatial environment, input parameters, legend, and summary of residents activities.
Model Available at: https://www.openabm.org/model/4865. Alternatively for a more upto date version of the model see: https://github.com/eclab/mason/tree/master/contrib/geomason/sim/app/geo.
Reference: Pires, B. and Crooks, A.T. (2017), Modelling the Emergence of Riots: A Geosimulation Approach, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 61: 66-80.
Click on the image below to see a YouTube movie of the model:
