Agent-based Modeling of Inter-provincial Migration in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam: A Data Analytics Approach

The Mekong Delta (MKD) region in Vietnam has experienced large-scale inter-provincial migration flows. This study employs agent-based modeling to explore migration dynamics across the provinces and cities in the MKD. An agent-based model, which incorporates the Theory of Planned Behaviour into the decision-making process to effectively break down migration intention into related components, is developed to simulate how an individual makes migration decisions considering different economic, social, and environmental circumstances. Outputs of the agent-based model are calibrated via real province-level data of in-, out-, and net-migration flows in the MKD region with the use of a data analytics approach, in an attempt to validate the results produced.