A probe mechanism to couple spatially explicit agents and landscape models in an integrated modelling framework

ion of the conceptual model-data model-data structure chain, abstraction of locations within the world, and abstraction of the boundary topology are very powerful from the standpoint of model development. However, the presence of multiple levels of abstraction, the potential for heterogeneous data sources, and a variable policy for coordinate transformation that is unknown a priori mean that the mechanism to access state within the operating model must also be abstract. ECO-COSM therefore has an instrumentation subsystem that provides abstracted data access. 2.3 Instrumentation subsystem and Probes The instrumentation subsystem has few classes but is conceptually the most complex and most versatile in the entire framework (figure 4). It allows the modeller to create very sophisticated data-collection tools, connecting them to a working simulation model with no impacts or side effects on the model calculations. A basic model will execute successfully from start to finish and terminate with none of the results observed or captured. The model, representing the formalized behaviour of some ecological system, remains completely separate from any results data that are gathered for later analysis. Getlset methods are a common idiom used by several frameworks, including ASCAPE, to control access to state within model elements. This is good practice in general 00 programming for automatic, extensible access via introspection which reduces the need for explicit coding. However, one can Spatially explicit agents and landscape models 973 Pro be k l m p l e m e n t ~ ________-_------1 Probeable I