@inbook {1536, title = {Chapter Seven Integrated Modelling Frameworks for Environmental Assessment and Decision Support}, booktitle = {Developments in Integrated Environmental Assessment}, volume = {3}, year = {2008}, pages = {101-118}, publisher = { Elsevier}, organization = { Elsevier}, chapter = {7}, abstract = {

In this chapter we investigate the motivation behind the development of modelling frameworks that explicitly target the environmental domain. Despite many commercial and industrial-strength frameworks being available, we claim that there is a definite niche for environmental-specific frameworks. We first introduce a general definition of what is an environmental integrated modelling framework, leading to an outline of the requirements for a generic software architecture for such frameworks. This identifies the need for a knowledge layer to support the modelling layer and an experimentation layer to support the execution of models.

The chapter then focuses on the themes of knowledge representation, model management and model execution. We advocate that appropriate knowledge representation and management tools can facilitate model integration and linking. We stress that a model development process adhering to industry standards and good practices, called \“model engineering,\” is to be pursued. We focus on the requirements of the experimental frame, which can ensure transparency and traceability in the execution of simulation scenarios and optimisation problems associated with complex integrated assessment studies.

A promising trend for knowledge representation is the use of ontologies that have the capacity to elicit the meaning of knowledge in a manner that is logical, consistent and understandable by computers and the knowledge worker community. This new path in knowledge-based computing will support retention of institutional knowledge, while putting modelling back in the hands of modellers. Environmental modelling will then become a conceptual activity, focusing on model design rather than model implementation, with code generation being delegated to some degree to ontology-aware tools. In this respect, we envision the whole model lifecycle to change drastically, becoming more of a theoretical activity and less of a coding-intensive, highly engineering-oriented task.

}, keywords = {environmental integrated modelling frameworks, knowledge representation, model engineering, model management, modelling frameworks}, isbn = {9780080568867}, doi = {doi:10.1016/S1574-101X(08)00607-8}, author = {A. E. Rizzoli and G. Leavesley and J. C. Ascough II and R. M. Argent and I. N. Athanasiadis and V. Brilhante and F. H. A. Claeys and O. David and M. Donatelli and P. Gijsbers and D. Havlik and A. Kassahun and P. Krause and N. W. T. Quinn and H. Scholten and R. S. Sojda and F. Villa}, editor = {A. J. Jakeman and A. A. Voinov and A. E. Rizzoli and S. H. Chen} } @proceedings {1560, title = {CONCEPT MAPS FOR COMBINING HARD AND SOFT SYSTEM THINKING IN THE MANAGEMENT OF SOCIO-ECOSYSTEMS}, year = {2008}, url = {http://cmc.ihmc.us/cmc2008papers/cmc2008-p190.pdf}, author = {Franco Salerno and Emanuele Cuccillato and Robert Muetzelfeldt and Francesco Giannino and Birendra Bajracharya and Paolo Caroli and Gaetano Viviano and Anna Staiano and Fabrizio Carten{\`\i}, and Stefano Mazzoleni and Gianni Tartari} } @article {4214, title = {The clinical and cost effectiveness of screening for meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)}, year = {2007}, issn = {HTA 9}, url = {http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/his/idoc.ashx?docid=4cd58ffa-afdb-45bb-b0d5-22782b3f327d\&version=-1}, author = {Ritchie K and Bradbury I and Craig J and Eastgate J and Foster L and Kohli H and Iqbal K and MacPherson K and McCarthy T and McIntosh H and Nic Lochlainn E and Reid M and Taylor J} } @article {1542, title = {Corrigendum to {\textquotedblleft}It was an artefact not the result: A note on systems dynamic{\textquotedblright} [Environ. Model. Softw. 20 (2005) 1543{\textendash}1548] }, journal = {Environmental Modelling \& Software}, volume = {21}, year = {2006}, month = {05/2006}, pages = {756-758 }, doi = {doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2006.01.003 }, author = {R. Seppelta and O. Richterb} } @article {1585, title = {CamFlores: A FLORES-type model for the humid forest margin in Cameroon}, journal = {Small-Scale Forestry}, volume = {2}, year = {2003}, month = {2003/05/07/}, pages = {211 - 223}, abstract = {Abstract\ \ A FLORES-type model in the Simile modelling environment is being developed for three villages in the Humid Forest Benchmark area of southern Cameroon. The modelling project seeks to investigate the effects of introduction of new crop varieties and improved farming systems on the long-term maintenance of stable mosaics of forest and agriculture, within the context of the international Alternatives to Slash and Burn programme. Biophysical data have been collated, and socio-econnomic and tenure data have been acquired in spatially-explicit ways. Maps of land-cover at village and benchmark scale are being prepared from detailed and semi-detailed satellite imagery, using a nested legend system that allows linking of maps at different scales. These data enable the initial construction and parameterisation of the model, and will permit the extrapolation of the results of modelling from the villages to the benchmark, and ultimately to the whole of the Congo Basin humid forests. The prototype version of the model involves 10 households and about 500 land patches, and includes the three agricultural systems dominant in the southern more forested portion of the Benchmark (mixed food-fallow systems, forest melon fields, cocoa plantations) with no rental, sale or other transfer of land. Decision-making at the household level is essentially modelled deterministically, and labour productivity is assumed to be constant between households. This model is now complete, and once it has been adjusted and suitably parameterised, it will be applied to real data from the three test villages. This will require the addition of new farming systems, the introduction of modes of permanent or temporary transfer of land, and modification of the decision model to render it more realistic. ER - }, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11842-003-0016-4}, author = {Legg, Christopher} }