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Assistant Director of Research in Computing, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
Dr Bithell’s research aims to develop dynamic models of socio-economic systems that can be integrated with existing physical and ecological models. Such models would aim to get a better understanding of how environmental changes affect social systems, inform thinking about how societies adapt to environmental change and help to model the outcome of policy decisions. Another strand his research uses discrete computational models to look at physical systems; for example, how can the flow of gravel or other debris be modelled?
Other current and recent research includes Climate Outlooks and Agent Based Simulation of Adaptation in Africa (CLOUD); Discrete simulation systems for environmental modelling; Integrating Agent-Based Models of Subsistence Farming with Individual-Based Models of Trees and Dynamic Models of Water Distribution; and CAMGIS which exists to provide support to Geographical Information Systems (GIS) related research and teaching in the University of Cambridge. CAMGIS has particular interests in the social sciences and related fields using GIS technology and the methods of spatial data analysis. Dr Bithell is also a member of the Environmental Processes research cluster.
His current research interests include
- Techniques for dealing with irregularly distributed data in three dimensions
- Simulation of discrete particle flows and their interactions with fluids
- Multi-agent simulation models of population dynamics and the emergence of structure in complex systems
- Generation of robust models for socio-economic systems and their relation to environmental change
