Note that this page is part of a collection of iLand history pages and does not necessarily represent the current state of model development!

Core principles

Core principles in the design and development of iLand are:

iLand aims at predictive capacity for complex adaptive systems (CAS)

• key aspects will be modeled as emerging properties of the model
• the importance of interactions at various levels for systems dynamics is explicitly accounted for

iLand development is explicitly driven by (a) research question(s)

• the intended domain of application is given by the cornerstones climate change – disturbances – ecosystem management
• process and complexity requirements are related to the models CAS abilities and intended domain of application

iLand is an extension of previous and ongoing activities

• the work under the project does not re-invent the wheel but rather brings „wheels“ together
• project development is strongly linked to existing tools (LANDIS-II, PICUS) and ongoing research projects

iLand is open

• process interfaces will be designed for easy adaptation and extension
• code will be freely available under the premise of reserved intellectual property rights
• a comprehensive documentation will be provided

Model hierarchy and structure

Processes in iLand operate on three hierarchical levels:

• environment: the level of homogeneous climate and topography (~ tens to hundreds of hectares),
• resources: the level of above- and belowground resource dynamics, influenced by environmental factors and aggregated tree level structure (~ a hectare)
• individuals: the level of individual tree dynamics, affected by the environment and competing for resources

boxes= state variables; rhombs= flow variables; hexagon= process; arrows= influence, information flow