Agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) is a class of computational models for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous agents with the goal of assessing their effects on a system as a whole. Several frameworks for generating parallel ABMS applications have been developed taking advantage of their common characteristics, but there is a lack of a general benchmark for comparing the performance of generated applications. We propose and design a benchmark that takes into consideration the most common characteristics of this type of applications and includes parameters for influencing their relevant performance aspects. We provide an initial implementation of the benchmark for DMASON parallel ABMS platform, and we use it for comparing the applications generated by these platforms.

This agent-based model simulates the interactions between smallholder farming households, land-use dynamics, and ecosystem services in a rural landscape of Eastern Madagascar. It explores how alternative agricultural practices —shifting agriculture, rice cultivation, and agroforestry—combined with varying levels of forest protection, influence food production, food security, dietary diversity, and forest biodiversity over time. The landscape is represented as a grid of spatially explicit patches characterized by land use, ecological attributes, and regeneration dynamics. Agents make yearly decisions on land management based on demographic pressures, agricultural returns, and institutional constraints. Crop yields are affected by stochastic biotic and abiotic disruptions, modulated by local ecosystem regulation functions. The model additionally represents foraging as a secondary food source and pressure on biodiversity. The model supports the analysis of long-term trade-offs between agricultural productivity, human nutrition, and conservation under different policy and land-use scenarios.