Capsis: an open software framework and community for forest growth modelling

Dufour-Kowalski, Samuel; Courbaud, Benoît; Dreyfus, Philippe; Meredieu, Céline; de Coligny, François

doi:10.1007/s13595-011-0140-9

Annals of Forest Science

Table 1 Modelling software/frameworks in order of citation

From: Capsis: an open software framework and community for forest growth modelling

Software/framework	Development interface^a	Multi model integration^b	Multi model linking^c	End user interface^d	Application domain^e	Main modelling paradigm^f
SILVA	Not extensible	No	No	Yes	Forestry	Distance-dependent tree model
SORTIE	C++/JAVA API	No	No	Yes	Forestry	Distance-dependent tree model
Prognaus	Not extensible	No	No	Yes	Forestry	Distance-independent tree model
Sexi	Not extensible	No	No	Yes	Forestry	Distance-dependent tree model
Simcop	Not extensible	No	No	No	Forestry	Distance-dependent tree model
FVS	SAS API	No	No	Yes	Forestry	Distance-independent tree model
MATLAB	Own language only	Yes	Yes	No	Numerical computing	Procedural
R	Own language only	Yes	Yes	No	Statistics	Procedural
OCELET	Own language only	Yes	No	No	Landscape modelling	Entity/relation/scenario
STELLA	Visual programming only	Yes	No	No	Not domain specific	Compartment flows
MODELMAKER	Visual programming only	Yes	No	No	Not domain specific	Compartment flows
Simile	Visual programming only	Yes	No	No	Agro-ecology	Compartment flows
ECOSIM	Own language and visual programming	Yes	No	No	Individual-based ecological modelling	Individual based
COINS	Delphi component API	Yes	No	Yes	Space-based ecological modelling	Grid cell/time scheduling
OpenMI	.NET and JAVA component API and visual programming	Yes	Yes	No	Not domain specific/used in hydrology	Time scheduling
APSIM	.NET component API	Yes	Yes	No	Agriculture	Message passing system
MODCOM	.NET and COM/DCOM component API	Yes	Yes	No	Agro-ecology	Time scheduling
TIME	.NET component API	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not domain specific/used in hydrology	Time scheduling
VLE	C++ component API and visual programming	Yes	Yes	No	Not domain specific	DEVS
OPENALEA	Python component API and visual programming	Yes	Yes	No	Plant modelling	Dataflow
SIMO	Python component API and conf XML	Yes	Yes	No	Forestry	Time scheduling
CAPSIS	JAVA component API	Yes	No	Yes	Forestry	Scenario

^aMethod to implement a new model or behaviour
^bThe modeller can create different models with the same tool. “No” includes the case when a single model is adaptable/parameterisable, meaning a variant (same processes) can be built/calibrated for various species/situations
^cAims at integrating and aggregating easily different autonomous models, possibly implemented in another software/language, to create a new one. Generally, such a framework provides an API to implement a model and a configuration tool to compose the simulation
^dIntegrated models can be configured, executed, explored in a dedicated user-friendly interface without any knownledge on the models implementation. End-user interfaces are different than model creation interface
^eDomain for which the framework has been created. Usually, a domain-specific tool comes with dedicated software libraries to simplify the developement of models in the domain
^fMain modelling principle. This can be an advantage because modellers do not have to care about some aspect of the model implementation, but it also can be a limitation because models which do not fit are hard to implement

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ISSN: 1297-966X

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