Monday, August 2, 2010

OPS 2-8: An exploration of modeling the spread of the Burmese python, Python mourus

Margaret Lowman1, Christopher Hart2, Leon Kaganovskiy2, Elizabeth Hamman2, Angelique Giraud2, Sarah McManus2, and Ryan Tisdale2. (1) North Carolina State University, (2) New College of Florida

Background/Question/Methods and Results/Conclusions

The development of an agent-based GIS model was attempted to fully understand the expansion of the python population. Relevant ethnological and physiological data on the pythons was evaluated and used to develop a model. As a small, undergraduate institution without large computing power or large sets of data, we relied on publicly available data and open source software. Overall, the project was a valuable learning experience on which New College students can continue to build an improved model as better data and programs become available.