A Community Approach to Earth Systems Modeling

Abstract

Earth science often deals with complex systems spanning multiple disciplines. These systems are best described by integrated models built with contributions from specialists of many backgrounds. But building integrated models can be difficult; modular and hierarchical approaches help to manage the increasing complexity of these modeling systems, but there is a need for framework and integration methods and standards to support modularity. Complex models require many data and generate lots of output, so software and standards are required for data handling, model output, data distribution services, and user interfaces. Complex modeling systems must be efficient to be useful, so they require contributions by software engineers to ensure efficient architectures, accurate numerics, and implementation on fast computers. Further, integrated model systems can be difficult to learn and use unless adequate documentation, training, and support are provided.

In glacial environments beyond glacial terrains: Human eco-dynamics in late Pleistocene Mediterranean Iberia

“…A variety of computational modeling approaches are particularly useful for synthesizing proxy data and representing the dynamics of Pleistocene environmental change. Examples include different approaches to modeling climate, vegetation, and landscape change (Ruter et al, 2004;Clevis et al, 2006;Phillips and Dudík, 2008;Liu et al, 2009;Barton et al, 2010;McDonald and Bryson, 2010;Voinov et al, 2010).…”

2.13 Quantitative Modeling of Landscape Evolution

“…Beven (2009) argued that uncertainty analysis is one of the directions in which most is to be gained for environmental models in general -perhaps more than from model improvement. The development and sharing of models that offer these advanced sensitivity analysis opportunities, through programs such as CSDMS (Voinov et al, 2010), are something to work toward in the years ahead. Commonly, procedural decisions are hidden behind interfaces, making them inaccessible to users (as opposed to easy variation of model parameters).…”

Integrated environmental modelling: achieving the vision

“…File format standards are used where models run sequentially and data exchange is affected by making the output file of one model the input file of the following model. WaterML (Taylor et al, 2012) is an example of such a standard.…”