Structuring Socio-Technical Complexity in Infrastructure Systems: The Biogas System

Infrastructure systems consist of many heterogeneous decision making entities and technological artefacts. They are governed through public policy that unravels in a multi-scale institutional context, ranging from norms and values to technical standards. For example, to integrate biogas infrastructure in a region, various forms of governance, laws and regulations need to be implemented. To effectively design these requirements, insights into socio-technical systems can be gained through agent-based modelling and simulation. To implement such social concepts in agent-based models of infrastructure systems, we designed a modelling framework called MAIA, based on the Institutional Analysis and Development framework of Elinor Ostrom. This paper will explain how MAIA can be used to model a biogas energy infrastructure in the Netherlands.