A guided, code-level demonstration that the TerraME modelling ecosystem — System Dynamics, Cellular Automata, Agent-based Modeling — is reproducible in DisSModel (Python), lesson by lesson, model by model, with real code from both ecosystems shown side by side.
Adapted from the original TerraME/Lua course (wiki, São José dos Campos, taught by Pedro R. Andrade, Gilberto Câmara, and Francisco Gilney Bezerra).
This book is compatibility-demonstration-oriented, not a from-scratch modelling course. For the ecosystem's technical reference (installation, architecture, API), see the companion book: dissmodel-book. The two books cite each other — that one covers "how DisSModel works", this one covers "how it maps onto everything TerraME already did".
pip install -r requirements.txt
mkdocs serve # preview at http://127.0.0.1:8000
mkdocs build # build static site to site/
mkdocs gh-deploy # deploy to GitHub Pagesdocs/
index.md
part1-foundations/ # Lessons 1-2 — Computing fundamentals, Python for DisSModel
part2-system-dynamics/ # Lessons 3-8 — Stocks/flows, feedbacks, SIR, chaos, Lotka-Volterra, Daisyworld
part3-cellular-automata/ # Lessons 9-12 — Game of Life, forest fire, cellular data, deforestation
part4-agent-based/ # Lessons 13-14 — Random walk, agent-based predator-prey
part5-summary/ # Lesson 15 — Equivalence table and migration roadmap
Every "TerraME vs DisSModel: side-by-side code" section quotes real code — not reconstructions — pulled directly from:
| Paradigm | TerraME (Lua) | DisSModel (Python) |
|---|---|---|
| System Dynamics | TerraME/sysdyn | DisSModel/dissmodel-sysdyn |
| Cellular Automata | TerraME/ca | DisSModel/dissmodel-ca |
| Agent-based Modeling | TerraME/logo | DisSModel/dissmodel-abm |
Each lesson can evolve on its own branch: lesson/<slug>. Open a PR to main when a lesson is ready for
review. If a "Runoff" or "Agent-based SIR" implementation ever lands in dissmodel-ca / dissmodel-abm,
add the corresponding lesson back under Parts III/IV and update mkdocs.yml's nav.
LambdaGEO Research Group · Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA)