MARS GeoRasterBlueprint

The MARS GeoRasterBlueprint is an simple MARS model that incorporates georeferenced raster data. The model's environment represents the Addo Elephant National Park. This area is modelled as a grid layer with georeferenced cells. Elephant agents can move within the perimeter of the Addo Elephant National Park, which is defined by the .asc grid file addo.asc.

The model also includes water sources in the form of vector data, which the Elephant agents can navigate to. Therefore, the model also illustrates the use of georeferenced vector data.

Note: this model intends to showcase some technical aspects of MARS only. It does not aspire to model elephant behavior accurately.

How to get raster data

To create a georeferenced raster layer of your simulation area, please see the MARS documentation.

Simple Vector layers can be created with QGIS or at geojson.io.

Model Structure and Resources

The following components and resources make up the model:

• Elephant: This agent type models an elephant that moves around randomly in the Addo Elephant National Park. When its Energy is below a certain threshold, it queries the WaterLayer (see below) for a water source to navigate to. Elephant agents are parameterized with the elephants.csv file in the Resources folder.
• LandscapeLayer: This layer holds a grid of cells. Each cell is referenced by geocoordinates. The georeferenced data contained in the Perimeter (see below) are used to determine which cell is accessible (i.e., within the perimeter) and inaccessible (i.e., outside of the perimeter).
• Perimeter: This raster layer holds the perimeter of the Addo Elephant National Park. The georeferenced data are provided by the addo.asc file in the Resources folder.
• WaterLayer: This vector layer holds a set of vector features that represent water sources in the Addo Elephant National Park. The georeferenced data of the water sources are provided by the WaterSpots.geojson file in the Resources folder.

Model configuration

The model can be configured via the config.json file in the root folder of the blueprint. For additional information, please see the MARS documentation.

Visualizing the model output

The vector data and the movement of the Elephant agents is stored in a file named Elephant_trips.geojson, which is stored in GeoRasterBlueprint/bin/Debug/net6.0. The movement trajectories can be visualized in kepler.gl. Below is a screenshot of the visualization output.