Humans & technology form my drive & focus. They are both tremendously fascinating, are tremendously empowering when combined and therefore allow me to engage with meaningful challenges.
My work is characterised by a focus on understanding complex (social) systems. My research can be characterised by the question: ‘How does human behaviour arise or change given its social and physical context?‘. More specifically, I have engaged with: ‘How is (individual) human behaviour affect in crowds?’, ‘Why do some groups (cooperatively) use their resources sustainably, whereas others overexploit?‘, ‘What is the role of often implicit simplistic assumptions underlying human behaviour, for science/management?’…
To address these questions, I make use of computational simulations to integrate and reflect both knowledge and empirics. Models, simulation and data analysis are my tools to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying these systems. More specifically, I work with agent-based modelling (ABM), simulation experiments and data analysis of large datasets. My projects have thus far focused on crowd modelling and social-ecological modelling while also exploring and implementing methodological tools for developing and analysing social simulation data.
Focus on social-ecological systems. I contribute towards deeper understanding of human behaviour in natural resource management. Case experts and data, theory and a variety of methods allow for integrating and modelling (system) behaviour from an unique angle. Projects: FIBE, agentEx and COBA.
SES-LINK| Stockholm Resilience Centre | Stockholm University
Focus on support water policy and sustainable river management in the Netherlands. Contributed to running the serious games with water policy developers. I modelled policy decision dynamics as social uncertainty in long-term water management, based on conducted interviews. Project: adaptation pathways.
Faculty of Geoscience | Utrecht University
For my PhD I developed a social, cognitive model of crowd behaviour, ‘CROSS’, to study the behavioural mechanisms underlying crowd behaviour. Project: CROSS.
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen
Business Unit Human Factors, TNO Safety & Defense
For my master thesis project, I developed a model of egress (people fleeing out of buildings into the streets). This project was executed in Freiburg (Germany) as a part of the RoboCup rescue simulation team ResQ-Freiburg.
Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences | University of Groningen | The Netherlands
Department of Computer Science | Albert-Ludwigs University | Freiburg , Germany
Wijermans, N., Conrado, C., van Steen, M., Martella, C., & Li, J. (2016). A landscape of crowd-management support: An integrative approach. Safety Science, 86(C), 142–164. [www]
Wijermans, N., Jorna, R., Jager, W., van Vliet, T., & Adang, O. M. J. (2013). CROSS: modelling crowd behaviour with social-cognitive agents. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 16(4). [www]
Waldherr, A., & Wijermans, N. (2013). Communicating Social Simulation Models to Sceptical Minds. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulations, 16(4). [www]
The full publication list can be find in the ‘Details’ section of this page and on google scholar
Programming: Java, Python, C/C++, Prolog
Data analysis: R, MS excel, MATLAB
Software environments: Mac OSX, Windows, Linux, Repast, Netlogo, Eclipse, Rstudio
Misc : SVN, Latex, HTML, WordPress
Schlüter, M., Baeza, A., Dreßler, G., Frank, K., Groeneveld, J., Jager, W., Janssen, M.A., McAllister R. R. J., Müller B., Orach, K., Schwarz, N, and Wijermans, N. (2017). A framework for mapping and comparing behavioural theories in models of social-ecological systems. Ecological Economics, 131, 21–35. [www]
Schill, C., Wijermans, N., Schlüter, M., & Lindahl, T. (2016). Cooperation Is Not Enough—Exploring Social-Ecological Micro-Foundations for Sustainable Common-Pool Resource Use. PLoS ONE, 11(8), e0157796–24. [www]
Wijermans, N., Conrado, C., van Steen, M., Martella, C., & Li, J. (2016). A landscape of crowd-management support: An integrative approach. Safety Science, 86(C), 142–164. [www]
Andringa, T. C., van den Bosch, K. A., & Wijermans, N. (2015). Cognition from life: the two modes of cognition that underlie moral behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. [www]
Wijermans, N., Jorna, R., Jager, W., van Vliet, T. & Adang, O. (2013). CROSS: Modelling Crowd Behaviour with Social-Cognitive Agents. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. [www]
Waldherr, A. & Wijermans, N. (2013). Communicating Social Simulation Models to Sceptical Minds. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. [www]
Offermans, A., Valkering, P., Vreugdenhil, H., Wijermans, N., & Haasnoot, M. (2013). The Dutch dominant perspective on water; risks and opportunities involved. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A: Toxic/Hazardous Substances and Environmental Engineering. [www]
Vreugdenhil, H. & Wijermans, N. (2013). De beleidsarena van het Deltaprogramma. Water Governance [www]
Amblard, F., Geller, A., Neumann, M., Srbljinovic, A., & Wijermans, N. (2010). Analyzing Social Conflict via Computational Social Simulation: A Review of Approaches. In M. K, M. D, & S. A (Eds.), (pp. 126–141). Complex Societal Dynamics – Security Challenges and Opportunities.
Waldherr, Annie & Wijermans, Nanda (2015): Modelling the role of social media at street protests. Presented at the Social Simulation Conference 2015 of the European Social Simulation Association (ESSA), September 14-18, Groningen, Netherlands.
Wijermans, N., & Schlüter, M. (2014). Modelling cooperation in Bali irrigation. In: Proceedings of the Social Simulation Conference 2014 of the 10th conference of the European Social Simulation Association, Barcelona.
Wijermans, N., & Schlüter, M. (2014). Agent-Based Case Studies for Understanding of Social-Ecological Systems: Cooperation on Irrigation in Bali. In B. Kamiński & G. Koloch (Eds.), Advances in Social Simulation Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the European Social Simulation Association (Vol. 229, pp. 295–305). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39829-2_26
Wijermans, N., & Haasnoot, M. (2012). Including policy dynamics to explore water policy pathways. In A. Koch (Ed.), (pp. 175–178). The 8th Conference of the European Social Simulation Association. Salzburg, Austria.
Wijermans, N. & Vreugdenhil, H. (2012). Social Uncertainties in Social-Ecological Systems: Policy dynamics in the Dutch Delta Programme. In Seppelt, R., Voinov, A. A., Lange, S. & Bankamp, D. (Eds.) International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software Managing Resources of a Limited Planet, Sixth Biennial Meeting. Leipzig, Germany. [www]
Haasnoot, M., van Deursen, W.P.A., Middelkoop, H., van Beek, E., & Wijermans, N. (2012). An Integrated Assessment Metamodel for Developing Adaptation Pathways for Sustainable Water Management in the Lower Rhine Delta. In Seppelt, R., Voinov, A. A., Lange, S. & Bankamp, D. (Eds.) International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software Managing Resources of a Limited Planet, Sixth Biennial Meeting. Leipzig, Germany. [www]
Wijermans, N. (2011). Exploring the CROSS model: The role of density in crowds. The 7th European Social Simulation Association Conference. Montpellier, France.
Wijermans, N., Vreugdenhil, H., Haasnoot, M., & Middelkoop, H. (2011). Introducing social modelling in the water world. In The 7th European Social Simulation Association Conference. Montpellier, France.
Wijermans, N., Haasnoot, M., & Middelkoop, H. (2011). Dynamic modelling: social and physical interactions to explore future water management. In NCR days 2011: Controlling Dutch Rivers (pp. 58–59). Delft, The Netherlands. [www]
Offermans, A., Vreugdenhil H., Wijermans N., & Haasnoot M. (2011). The Dutch dominant perspective on water; Risks and opportunities involved. Sixth Dubrovnik Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems. Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Wijermans, N., Jorna, R. J. J. M., Jager, W., & van Vliet, T. (2008). Modelling the dynamics of motivational and situated behaviour. In Proceedings of the 2nd World Congress on Social Simulation. Washington, USA.
Geller, A., & Wijermans, N. (2008). “Death to …!‘: On opinion dynamics in conflict-torn Afghanistan’. In The Fifth Conference of the European Social Simulation Association. Brescia, Italy.
Wijermans, N., Jorna, R. J. J. M., Jager, W., & van Vliet, T. (2007). Modelling crowd dynamics. Influence factors related to the probability of a riot. In F. Amblard (Ed.), Proceedings of ESSA’07 the 4th Conference of the European Social Simulation Association. IRIT Editions.
Wijermans, N., Jorna, R. J. J. M., Jager, W., & van Vliet, T. (2006). Cognitive Social Agents, a Simulation in the field of Crowd Behaviour. In, Beyond the Brain: Embodied, Situated and Distributed Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Wijermans, N. (2011). Understanding crowd behaviour: Simulating situated individuals. PhD thesis. [www]
Wijermans, N. (2005). Crowd modeling and control in a Robocup Rescue Domain. University of Groningen. Master thesis. [www]
Wijermans, N (2009). The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology. Book review. Sun R (ed.). Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. [www]
Model calendar 2015 [ www ]
1 – 5 Feb 2016: Visit & colloquium lecture at the Institute of Environmental Systems Research (Osnabrück, Germany)
26 Jan- 20 Feb 2015: Research visit at the Centre for Research Social Simulation (Guildford, UK)
25-27 Mar 2015: Research visit at the Centre for policy modelling (Manchester, UK)
18 Oct 2013: Gave a seminar on social mechanisms. Institute for Futures Studies (Stockholm, Sweden)
12 Nov 2012: Lecture at the institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, (Berlin, Germany)
22 Feb 2011: SIKS PhD modelling course – Crowd modelling (Utrecht, The Netherlands)
Project-related collaborations
Bilateral science-hobby projects
