Modeling Software Provides Clearer Picture for Making Environmental Decisions

Argonne has created a new environmental modeling software tool that makes it easier for land managers to apply computer models to depict the true dynamics of a given ecosystem, region or landscape.

Ecological management is complex. For example, government regulations may require changes in land use or management to protect an endangered species. These changes may in turn have an impact on other wildlife or on water quality and can weaken a region’s economy. Balancing these multiple goals and objectives requires looking at the interplay of ecology, physical environment and socio-economics across a region and evaluating the landscape as a whole system.

Argonne’s Object-Oriented Integrated Dynamic Landscape Analysis and Modeling System (OO-IDLAMS) allows land managers to simulate and better understand the complexities of an ecosystem when making decisions.

Environmental simulation models often operate independently, so each component of an ecosystem—such as land, water or atmosphere—must be studied in isolation from the others. While geographic information systems that capture, analyze, manipulate and display geographic data are excellent tools for studying spatial aspects, they are static and have difficulty handling the dynamic nature of ecosystems. OO-IDLAMS allows multiple simulation models to work together and reduces the cost of modeling by re-using existing data, models and system components with minimal reworking.

INTEGRATING INFORMATION
Building on the Dynamic Information Architecture System (DIAS) software initially developed by Argonne for the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, the new OO-IDLAMS uses an object-oriented programming approach that adds flexibility and improves dynamic interaction within the simulation framework.

An object-oriented approach merges programming code and data into a single reusable software “object.” Code and data are typically kept separate in other programs. Developers created special types of “objects” for OO-IDLAMS that represent “real-world” components of the ecosystem such as land management, land cover, land use, atmosphere, hydrology and wildlife. These “objects” make up the core of the modular modeling framework. Together, these objects and their connections to existing software applications, such as water quality or wildlife habitat models, make up OO-IDLAMS.

TALL-GRASS PRAIRIES
“We developed a prototype model specifically for the tall-grass prairie ecosystem of Fort Riley, Kansas,” said Pamela Sydelko, environmental modeling section manager in Argonne’s Decision and Information Sciences Division. One particular wildlife species of interest at Fort Riley is the Henslow’s Sparrow. Objects were developed and models were integrated for this prototype to represent the land management, land use, vegetation dynamics and wildlife habitat of Fort Riley.

Many of the software objects used for the Fort Riley application can now be re-used or modified to build an application for the forested southeastern United States where the primary interest is modeling population changes in the endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpecker.

“We can now apply new models within the framework to represent ecosystem processes such as forestry land use, natural disasters and forest growth for this new area,” Sydelko explained. “This will allow us to simulate the impact of these processes on the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker.”

The software can provide a “what-if” approach that allows decision makers and land managers to assess the impacts of alternative land management actions. It also provides the ability to assess these impacts on more than just one component of the ecosystem at a time. OO-IDLAMS provides a modeling approach to balance future land use with social, political and economic goals; maintain the health and sustainability of the ecosystem; and comply with natural resource regulations while viewing the consequences of land use at the local and national levels.

The OO-IDLAMS prototype was developed in partner-ship with the U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center – Construction Engineering Research Laboratory and was sponsored by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.

For more information please contact Dave Baurac at 630-252-5584

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