GEMMA: a meta-model for multilevel modeling and simulation

Multilevel modeling is a hierarchical modeling methodology that allows systems to be represented using multiple levels of detail, possibly based on different paradigms, that may coexist in (simulated) space/time or be changed dynamically. Multilevel modeling is widely used across many scientific disciplines, yet limited attention has been paid to methodological aspects of designing multilevel models. Indeed, most of the existing formalisms either limit the types of interactions among sub-models that they can represent, or lack the flexibility to integrate different paradigms effectively. In this paper we introduce GEMMA (GEneric Multilevel Modeling Abstraction), a meta-model for describing the structure and behavior of multilevel models, regardless of the paradigm they are based upon (i.e., discrete, continuous, agent-based, etc.). The paper details GEMMA’s architecture and provides guidelines for building compliant models through a set of abstract classes that standardize the basic operations. We discuss the application of GEMMA to some use cases to validate its effectiveness and show its versatility across different application domains and architectures.