Logistic Growth Model

Gopikrishnan C R
July 22, 2014
Abstract
Logistic Growth Model mathematically models the evolution of a population as time passes with
constrained resources. Irrespective of all the initial population size, all samples saturates to the
optimal value.
The ODE governing population is,
N(t) = k

1
N(t)
P

N(t) (1)
with N(0) = A. Here k is the rate of population increase while P is the maximum sustainable population.
The analytical solution can be derived as,
N

(t)
N(t)(1 pN(t))
= k where P = 1/p
dN

p
1 pN
+
1
N

= kdt
log

N
1 Np

= kt + C

N
1 pN
= C exp kt
Substituting the initial condition also,
N(t) =
PN
0
exp (kt)
P N
0
+ N
0
exp (kt)
(2)
We can directly observe that,
lim
t
PN
0
exp (kt)
P N
0
+ N
0
exp (kt)
= P (3)
This substantiates P is the maximum sustainable popilation.
The below plot shows the population proles of three samples with k = 1 and P = 500.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0
100
200
300
400
500
Time
P
o
p
u
l
a
t
i
o
n
Population Model
Figure 1: BlueN
0
= 1, RedN
0
= 10 and YellowN
0
= 100
1