Modeling Environments and Applications in Ecological Modeling

Model building for non-trivial application domains like environmental sciences is a complex task which should be carried out in a way such that resulting models not only describe the reality under investigation correctly at the chosen level of abstraction, but are also understandable, maintainable and, thus, reusable in modified experimental settings. We propose a modeling approach (supported by a computer based modeling environment) in which complex models are designed in a stepwise refinement process. Our approach is illustrated on the basis of a running example taken from forest ecology, using the conceptual framework of a modeling and simulation environment developed at our department