There are eleven design concepts. Most of these were discussed extensively by Railsback (2001) and Grimm and Railsback (2005; Chapter. 5), and are summarized here via the following questions:

        Which general concepts, theories, hypotheses, or modeling approaches are underlying the model’s design? Explain the relationship between these basic principles, the complexity expanded in this model, and the purpose of the study. How were they taken into account? Are they used at the level of sub-models (e.g., decisions on land use, or foraging the- ory), or is their scope the system level (e.g., intermediate disturbance hypotheses)? Will the model provide insights about the basic principles themselves, i.e. their scope, their usefulness in real-world scenarios, validation, or modification (Grimm, 1999)? Does the model use new, or previously developed, theory for agent traits from which system dynamics emerge (e.g.,‘individual-based theory’ as described by Grimm and Railsback [2005; Grimm et al., 2005])?Answer: ...

Emergence. What key results or outputs of the model are modeled as emerging from the adap- tive traits, or behaviors, of individuals? In other words, what model results are expected to vary in complex and perhaps unpredictable ways when particular characteristics of individuals or their environment change? Are there other results that are more tightly imposed by model rules and hence less dependent on what individuals do, and hence ‘built in’ rather than emergent results? Answer: ...

Adaptation. What adaptive traits do the individuals have? What rules do they have for making decisions or changing behavior in response to changes in themselves or their environment? Do these  traits  explicitly  seek  to increase  some  measure  of  individual  success  regarding  its objectives (e.g., “move to the cell providing fastest growth rate”, where growth is assumed to be an indicator of success; see the next concept)? Or do they instead simply cause individuals to reproduce observed behaviors (e.g., “go uphill 70% of the time”)