EML - A MODELING ENVIRONMENT FOR EXPLORING LANDSCAPE DYNAMICS

This paper describes a modeling environment, EML (Environmental Modeli ng Language), for exploring landscape dynamics. The strengths of three existing environmental modeling techniques - Geographical Information Systems (GIS), System Dynamics (SD), and Cellular Automata (CA) - are combined to provide spatio-temporal modeling capabilities. We review the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three existing approaches, describe our composite approach, and demonstrate how a user construct s a model using EML Also, we show, using a simple fire spread model, S chelling's segregation model, and a density-dependent population model , how EML can be used to explore landscape dynamics. EML's integration of GIS, SD, and CA techniques provides a broader perspective and a ri cher set of methods than each individual modeling technique affords. E ML also provides users an integrated modeling environment to support t he iterative construction of models and exploration of landscape dynam ics.