Session 9: Network Modeling: Integrating Social and Physical Systems
2:50 - 4:10 PM | Willy Room
Modeling World Trade: Land and Sea
Chris Arney, Kate Coronges, and Amy Krakowka
United States Military Academy
We evaluate the effects of emerging and changing intercontinental trade routes—maritime and overland—by developing measures that quantify their impact on nations and society using networks that include geographic constraints, national policies, and flow processing. Infrastructure costs, maintenance, and trade policies constitute additional inputs. We consider potential impacts, such as national cohesion, political contagion, vulnerability and security, and analyze the 5,000-mile New Silk Road (NSR).
Network Modeling of Teams: Linking Many Layers of Cooperation
Kate Coronges
United States Military Academy
We present considerations for bringing the social realm into network models in the context of the science of teamwork. Comparisons between formal and informal network structural dynamics in military units representing responsibility, friendship, trust, and leadership are presented, along with results showing the spread of beliefs and behaviors.
Geographical Factors Driving Household Vulnerability in Four East African countries
Amy Krakowka
United States Military Academy
An innovative modeling methodology is used, which blends state of the art tools developed from a comprehensive literature review and face to face interviews from the field. Geographical measurements, along with interview and ethnographic data, have been collected from communities in Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. This research addresses geographic, social, historic, and legal aspects of environment-related instability. The methodology builds a comprehensive assessment by defining the study area in terms of its vulnerabilities, identifying factors that contribute to resource susceptibility, developing a causal model of vulnerability, and finding physical and social indicators that operationalize the model.
