A Multi-Agent based Approach for Simulating the Impact of Human Behaviours on Air Pollution

Abstract: This paper presents a Multi-Agent System (MAS) approach for designing an air pollution simulator. The aim is to simulate the concentration of air pollutants emitted from sources (e.g. factories) and to investigate the emergence of cooperation between the emission source managers and the impact this has on air quality. The emission sources are controlled by agents. The agents try to achieve their goals (i.e. increase production, which has the side effect of raising air pollution) and also cooperate with others agents by altering their emission rate according to the air quality. The agents play an adapted version of the evolutionary N-Person Prisoners' Dilemma game in a non-deterministic environment; they have two decisions: decrease or increase the emission. The rewards/penalties are influenced by the pollutant concentration which is, in turn, determined using climatic parameters. In order to give predictions about the Plume Dispersion) model and an ANN (Artificial Neural Network) prediction model. The prediction is calculated using the dispersal information and real data about climatic parameters (wind speed, humidity, temperature and rainfall). Every agent cooperates with its neighbours that emit the same pollutant, and it learns how to adapt its strategy to gain more reward. When the pollution level exceeds the maximum allowed level, agents are penalised according to their participation. The system has been tested using real data from the region of Annaba (North-East Algeria). It helped to investigate how the regulations enhance the cooperation and may help controlling the air quality. The designed system helps the environmental agencies to assess their air pollution controlling policies.