A multi-agent platform to inform strategies for briefing age-friendly communities in urban China

Abstract

The World Health Organisation has been working for more than a decade to guide global cities and communities to consider, plan and implement age-friendly places in response to the rapid ageing. In China, promoting age-friendly communities (AFCs) is critical due to the fact of both rapid demographic change and people’s increasing awareness of making preparations to deal with their ageing issues. Although many efforts have been made to promote AFCs in urban China, challenges remain during the construction process. The engagement of stakeholders, budget and policy issues always challenge communities’ pathways to become age-friendly.

Simulation as a tool of analysis and prediction can be applied to propose constructing strategies and explore solutions regarding the above concerns. For a multi-agent system that contains several agents, an agent itself may lack resources, information and capabilities in solving the whole problem; however, interactions between each identifiable agent provide aggregated attributes, which can facilitate decision-making procedures afterwards.

Therefore, this paper aims to design a multi-agent platform to simulate the briefing stage and explore strategies for promoting AFCs in urban China. The theory and process to develop the platform according to a case study are described; The simulation results and how the platform can help are discussed. This research will serve as a reference for researchers and practitioners to further explore the briefing stage and efficient strategies for promoting AFCs.