Forest Fire Agent Model

(Description at the bottom)

Key:
water
burning trees
Time steps elapsed:
Frames per second:
Number of rows:
Number of columns:
Cell width (pixels):
Cell height (pixels):
Initial amount of water:
Initial number of burning trees:
Amount of trees to regrow per cell per time step:

Model Description

Initial State

In a rectangular world, there are cells and three types of agents: water, trees, burning trees. Initially, and each time the model is reset, the world is created by filling each cell with the maximum amount of trees. A certain amount of water is being supplied constantly, and a certain number of burning trees are randomly placed in the cells with a certain amount of trees initially in the forest. At no point during the simulation can two agents occupy the same cell. The state of the model is initially drawn on the screen.

During Each Time Step

During each time step of the simulation,

  1. each cell regrows trees by a certain amount;
  2. each water agent looks for a burning tree in the 4 nearest-neighboring cells. If it finds one, it puts the fire out;
  3. each surviving burning tree, if it is burning, it sets other trees on fire in the cell it occupies;
  4. all agents move randomly to one of their empty, nearest-neighboring cells;
  5. the current state of the model is drawn on the screen.

Final State

The simulation runs indefinitely, until the stop button is clicked.

© Shodor 2017