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Lookup NU author(s): Dr David Harvey
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The problem of decision making in environmental management is increasing steadily in complexity. A variety of pressure is leading to a requirement to consider the impacts of possible courses of action on a much wider basis than heretofore. Modelling and simulation is becoming ever more fundamental to the decision making process. Even to provide the deterministic modelling element of next generation decision support systems a more modular approach to software construction is needed than that used to build the modelling systems of the past. This is recognised in the effort being invested in developing I will refer to here, somewhat indiscriminately, as "software frameworks". The design of a software framework consists in large part in the design of a language or of a set of languages. Languages in general are media for the expression of thought (and thus for communication) but, as George Boole observed, they are much more profoundly "instrument[s] of human reason": without them abstract thought is not possible. The languages defined by modelling systems must deal with concepts in up to four distinct domains of abstraction. These four domains are currently rarely considered explicitly, let alone separated in implementation. Frameworks often mix abstractions belonging to two or more domains in a single language, even conflating abstractions from different domains. The current glut of modelling frameworks, of which often none quite fit the task in hand, can in part be ascribed to this. The treatment of each domain in a separate language in a layered framework offers a route forward.
Author(s): Harvey H
Editor(s): Zerger A; Argent RM
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Published
Conference Name: MODSIM 2005 International Congress on Modelling and Simulation
Year of Conference: 2005
Pages: 669-675
Publisher: Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand
URL: http://www.mssanz.org.au/modsim05/papers/harvey.pdf
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 0975840029
