Sustainable Ecological Modeling Using Discrete-Time Simulation
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2021) | Viewed by 289
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Sustainability in ecological settings may be framed as an ability to maintain rates of services provided over the long-term. The pervasive use of resources by humans in the anthropocene has made managing resources sustainably challenging. Reports commonly describe local declines in resources and degradation, as well as global declines, such as declines in biodiversity and changes to biogeochemical flows judged to exceed planetary boundaries. A powerful means of understanding tradeoffs in sustainability, extrapolating through space and time, and assessing scenarios is through discrete-time simulation. The progression of time is simulated while incorporating events in appropriate sequences to represent ecological processes and social decision making. These include numerical simulation; systems dynamics modeling; linked differential equations representing processes; cellular automata; and individual- and agent-based modeling. Mixed methods may combine approaches, such as coupled natural-and-human systems modeling that includes a process-based ecosystem model of differential equations and a linked agent-based model that represents human decision making.
We seek submissions for a Special Issue of Sustainability that include a diversity of topics and approaches to address the use of simulation in ecological sustainability research. Perspectives focusing on modeling concepts, aspects of data collection, manual and automated parameter identification, programming methods, analaysis methods, assessment and validation, and pathways to discovery (including scenario analyses) are appropriate. Case studies applying discrete-time simulation to questions of ecological sustainability are encouraged. Submissions exploring pressing environmental changes, such as climate change, as well as pulse changes, such as disturbances and the effects of the global pandemic, are welcomed.
The collection of accepted manuscripts will demonstrate the utility and flexibility of simulation to inform the management of resources sustainably. The Issue may serve as an introduction to discrete-time simulation to potential analysts and other readers.
Dr. Randall Boone
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- sustainability
- ecology
- ecosystems
- discrete-time simulation
- systems dynamics modelling
- cellular automata
- individual-based modeling
- agent-based modelling
- coupled natural and human systems
- modeling methods
- assessment
- validation
- scenario analyses
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