The representation of the environment in the context of individual-based modeling

Individual-based modeling includes the explicit representation of the environment, to which individual organisms interact. From the perspective of spatial representation. spatially extended environment is different from discrete individual organisms, thus the success of object-orientation in the representation of individual organisms may not be applicable to the representation of the environment. Over the past few years, the attempt to adopt object-orientation in the representation of the environment has stimulated interesting discussions over what space is and how it may be represented in ecological modeling. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the merit of two traditional approaches used to represent the environment, i.e., the grid model and the patch model, and, in particular, the object-oriented versions of the two approaches in the representation of the environment. Two case studies are provided in support of the discussions of how the environment may be represented. One case study concerns individual fish growth and movement in an aquatic environment and the other concerns the movement of calving elk in a short-grass prairie. The discussion stresses the importance of two issues in the context of individual-based modeling: (1) the distinction between object-orientation used as a programming technique and as a representation means, and (2) the conceptual compatibility between a perceived phenomenon and the approach used to represent the phenomenon. It is suggested that caution be exercised in the practice of treating cells as objects. The paper concludes that two approaches may be appropriate for individual-based modeling. One is a hybrid approach that incorporates the traditional grid model of the environment and an object-oriented model of individual organisms. The other is the all-object approach that combines the object-oriented patches of the environment and,the object-oriented individual organisms, (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.