Computer-Aided Construction of Ecological Simulation Models
Robert I. Muetzelfeldt, David Robertson, Michael Uschold, Alan Bundy · Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) · 1987
We describe the development of ECO, a program which enables ecologists with minimal mathematical or computing skills to build simulation models.Two important problems are found in this system: the specification formalism (System Dynamics) is not sufficiently expressive; and the system requires that users adapt to its specification language, rather than using their own terminology.We describe solutions to both these problems.The Submodels system permits users to construct models using more complex computational structures than those found in System Dynamics.Use of a "high level" specification language, based on a typed logic, is proposed as a means of allowing the users to express their modelling requirements using ecological terminology.This approach is compact, expressive and provides a framework for guiding the user during the process of model construction.