Andrea Emilio Rizzoli
IDSIA
Galleria 2
CH - 6928 Manno
Switzerland
Environmental Modelling Resources

 Last update: 29 March 2004
 
 

This is a list for the reader interested in modelling, simulation and the environment. It was thought as a companion to the a presentation titled Software tools and techniques to model environmental systems: a review by Andrea Rizzoli and Bill Young (click here for an online presentation), delivered on the 5th of September 1996 at Land and Water, CSIRO in Canberra.
Since 1996 many things have happened, and yet I haven't prepared a new version of that talk. Only recently (19-25 March 2004) I have been invited by the LEQUIA, University of Girona to deliver a short course on EDSS. The underlying idea was to talk about how EDSS can be used to support decision making and the lectures start from basic decision theory, trying to explain how we can write models to formulate decision problems. Solving the problem can be done using Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence techniques. All these techniques should be packaged into an EDSS and delivered to the Decision Maker. Here you can find the PDF of the lectures:

Taking decisions A short introduction to decision making and the role of EDSS
Modelling environmental systems From problems to models
Operations research, scenario analysis and heuristic methods Solving a decision problem, exploring the search space
Artificial intelligence Learning from experience, machine learning, rule-based and case-based reasoning
DSS, EDSS and Modelling Environments Packaging environmental science and knwoledge
References

 
Environmental Decision Support Systems (EDSS) 
GAIA: environmental model inventory This project, led by K. Fedra's ESS, aims at creating a world wide network of environmental models accessible from the Web. It includes the GAIA model base (developed by G. Guariso at the Politecnico di Milano).
The Desert Model A DSS for water quality management in river streams, developed at IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria.

 
 
 
Resource locators
Software - Hydrology A list of hydrological software
Seepage/Groundwater Modeling Software Another software list, maintained by the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers).
ASCE's Civil Engineering database ASCE'S Electronic Information Retrieval Service to All Its Publications Published since 1975. The CEDB Provides Access to over 80,000 Bibliographic and abstracted Records

 
In the news
sci.geo.eos Newsgroup on Earth Observation Science
sci.geo.lakes-and-rivers A newsgroup dedicated to modelling and management of water resources.
Engineering newsgroups on the USENET A searchable database which contains the articles appeared in the engineering groups of the USENET

 
Some software packages for environmental modelling
This is a really short and limited list of some software packages which are good examples of useful tools for the environmental modeller
ECGL Home Page ECGL stands for Engineering Computer Graphics Lab. The makers of GMS (Groundwater Modelling System) and of WMS (Watershed Modelling System) and other programs for hydrologic simulation.
Groundwater Vistas A graphical interface to MODFLOW and other widely known and used groundwater modelling and simulation software programs. 
GMS- Groundwater Modeling System (v2.0) It is a graphical interface to various groundwater simulation programs like FEMFLOW, etc. It enables the modeller to select various program to solve different problems while maintaining a consistent graphical user interface.
Distributed Modular Spatial Ecosystem Modeling A software environment for distributed simulation of ecosystems, based on the World Dynamics approach to simulation.
Hydromantis home page: GPS-X Simworks and GPS-X simulation software targeted towards simulation of hydrological phenomena.
PC Swmm A graphical interface to SWMM, the stormwater management model.

 
 
Model integration
Model integration is the Holy Grail of environmental modellers in the year 2000 :-). A huge number of models has been developped: how can they talk and interact? There are many answers, but which one will be the right one? 
TUDelft
TU Delft

Model integration at the Delft Technical University.
DSS at the CCI

Decision support systems for Water Management
RBA Delft

Water Allocation in TransboundaryRiver Basins during Low Flows
University of Texas, Austin
Integration of GIS and the Groundwater Modeling System  At the University of Texas, Austin. Project leader David Maidment.

Hydrologic Modeling using GIS
Argonne Laboratories
Argonne Labs, DIS: distributed simulation Distributed simulation at the Argonne labs.
Argonne National Laboratories: Advanced Model Development Environments Argonne Lab, model development environment

Argonne National Laboratory - DEEM High Level Architecture Page  the HLA is gaining acceptance in the simulation community.
DoD (Department of Defense, USA)
DoD-DMSO  Defense Modeling and Simulation Office. An architecture proposal for model interoperability.
DIS HOME PAGE 
JDBE Home Page 
MSRR Welcome Page  Modelling and Simulation Resource Repository.
CADSWES ad Colorado University, Boulder
CADSWES 

This Colorado based group has tight contacts with Colorado University and many modelling related projects are currently under development.
IDS Group at Colorado State, Denver
Integrated Decision Support Group Home Page  The integrated decision support group at Colorado State. 
ESS Austria
ESS Austria: River basin management 

A paper by K. Fedra on model integration.
Waterware

A Water Resources Management Information System
University of Manitoba
Univ of Manitoba: FIDS  Flexible integrated decision support, the work of S.P. Simonovic an the University of Manitoba. Mainly for Water Management. 
International Institute for Ecological Economics (University of Maryland)
Spatio-Temporal Modeling Page
Spatial Modeling Environment

Robert Costanza and Thomas Maxwell
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (University of Melbourne) Research Integration Project
Model integration in the Operations Research, Management Science fields
Arthur M. Geoffrion Home Page Structured modelling as Geoffrion says.
Structured Modeling: Survey and Future Research Directions  A paper by A. Geoffrion on structured modelling.
Hemant Bharghava's integrated modelling  Bharghava's home page, with some links and descriptions of his past project on model integration.
Yeo Gee Kin's home page 
Model Management Web site 

Some thinking on model management by Singapore University. Some interesting links and a useful bibliography too.
MDL & Simlab. A paper which describes the promises of MDL (Model Description Language)

 
 
Water Research agencies, firms and consultants
Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, ANU (Australia)
Environmental Consulting/Water Resources Engineering - RTi
Riverside Technology, inc.
Delft Hydraulics' Home Page
Centre for Water Policy Research
Hydrology
Danish Hydraulic Institute's Home Page
Institute for Water Resources
International Ground Water Modeling Center
USGS -- Water Resources of the United States
PWSC - Power and Water Systems Consultnts Ltd. (UK)

 
 
 
 
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