Creating an effective environment for collaborative spatio-temporal mo
del development will require computational systems that provide suppor
t for the user in three key areas: (1) Support for modular, hierarchic
al model construction and archiving/linking of simulation modules; (2)
support for graphical, icon-based model construction; (3) transparent
, seamless support for state of the art distributed computing. The key
requirement for this support is the adoption of a modeling standard,
either in the form of an interface specification language (ISL), or a
modular modeling language (MML). The ISL supports remote linking of si
mulation modules developed in disparate languages and environments. Th
e MML provides a language standard for the development and archiving o
f simulation modules. Optimally, the implementation of these languages
will include seamless links to graphical, icon-based simulation envir
onments and distributed computing environments. In this paper we discu
ss the authors' program to develop and implement an MML-based integrat
ed environment designed to provide this support for distributed modula
r spatio-temporal modeling. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.