📂Dynamics

Metapopulation Model

Glossary ¹

1. A model describing multiple populations that are spatially separated is known as the Metapopulation Model.
2. In this context, the separated spaces are also referred to as Patches.

Description

Meta?

In general, in the scientific community, Meta is taken to mean ‘about itself’. For example, if the ability to understand some object is called cognitive ability, then understanding about one’s cognitive ability is called metacognitive ability. For a more specific example, ‘whether I am good or bad at studying my major mathematics’ depends on cognitive ability, and ‘knowing which subjects I particularly like and find difficult’ is metacognitive ability.

The term ‘Meta (trending strategy)’ used in recent E-sports also originated from ‘Metagame analysis’, which is not about a specific game or two but about the macroscopic flow and strategy analysis of the discipline itself.

Population of Populations

Returning to the original topic, Metapopulation deals with the Populations of Populations. For example, if there is a model explaining the populations of Korea, China, and Japan, a East Asian population model considering the interactions, immigration, etc., between these countries would be a Metapopulation Model. In this case, it can be said that the model has $3$ Patches.

Coupled Dynamic Systems

The differential equation form of the Metapopulation Model can be described as a Coupled Dynamic System.

See Also ²

Eulerian Movement Model

The Eulerian Movement Model focuses on mid-to-long term migration between populations. For example, by simply viewing the population of a country by regions in terms of movement between urban and rural areas, it can describe the phenomenon where people from very small towns move to larger cities, and those cities channel population towards the capital.

Lagrangian Movement Model

The Lagrangian Movement Model is interested in short-term interactions between populations. For instance, in a disease spread model, it can explain phenomena such as commuters bringing diseases from busy areas to their residential areas, or tropical diseases normally found near beaches spreading to urban areas during the holiday season.