Modelling the spread of an invasive crayfish population with fuzzy cellular automata.

This paper analyzes the spread of the invasive red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) with a Cellular Automata (CA) model in a mixed terrestrial/aquatic environment. The spatial domain is subdivided in a number of cells, each behaving as a cellular automaton with local rules governing inner growth and movements across the cells. The novelty of the CA approach consists of incorporating a fuzzy inference system in the local rules determining the habitat suitability of neighbouring cells, thus determining the mobility of crayfish. Though the study is in an early stage of development, the preliminary results presented here look encouraging enough to pursue further development.