This paper reviews the applications of agent-based land-use models (ABLUMs) and discusses their potential and limitations. ABLUMs have gained attention for their ability to incorporate human decision-making and social interactions in a spatially explicit manner. The review covers five main areas: policy analysis and planning, participatory modeling, explaining spatial patterns of land use or settlement, testing social science concepts, and explaining land use functions. While ABLUMs have been primarily used as research tools to organize empirical data and explore theoretical aspects, there is a need to demonstrate their practical utility in real-world decision-making. The paper highlights the importance of stakeholder involvement in model development and the potential for ABLUMs to provide insights into complex natural resource systems. However, it also notes that ABLUMs are not yet fully developed to predict specific household or community behavior precisely. The authors conclude that ABLUMs are more useful as research tools to develop underlying knowledge bases that can be further refined into simple rules-of-thumb for end-users, rather than as operational decision support tools.This paper reviews the applications of agent-based land-use models (ABLUMs) and discusses their potential and limitations. ABLUMs have gained attention for their ability to incorporate human decision-making and social interactions in a spatially explicit manner. The review covers five main areas: policy analysis and planning, participatory modeling, explaining spatial patterns of land use or settlement, testing social science concepts, and explaining land use functions. While ABLUMs have been primarily used as research tools to organize empirical data and explore theoretical aspects, there is a need to demonstrate their practical utility in real-world decision-making. The paper highlights the importance of stakeholder involvement in model development and the potential for ABLUMs to provide insights into complex natural resource systems. However, it also notes that ABLUMs are not yet fully developed to predict specific household or community behavior precisely. The authors conclude that ABLUMs are more useful as research tools to develop underlying knowledge bases that can be further refined into simple rules-of-thumb for end-users, rather than as operational decision support tools.