A review of multilevel modeling and simulation for human mobility and behavior

Multilevel modeling and simulation is a general technique that has many applications in such diverse fields as chemistry, biology, engineering, social sciences and economics. Within these application domains, the study of human mobility and behavior is particularly relevant. Indeed, human mobility is at the basis of important cross-disciplinary research in epidemic modeling, traffic simulation, city planning, and socio-economic studies. Unfortunately, multilevel modeling is mostly used on an "ad hoc"basis due to the lack of consistent terminology and agreed-upon mechanisms. In this paper we perform a systematic literature review of multilevel simulation applied to human mobility and behavior, to identify research trends and contribute towards a better understanding of techniques, methodologies and terminology used within this research area. At the end of our analysis we uncover some recurrent modeling and simulation patterns that appear frequently within specific research areas, and we classify these methodological patterns along several dimensions such as modeling type and level of detail.