SIMPPLLE

General System description

System name: SIMulating Patterns and Processes at Landscape ScaLEs

Acronym: SIMPPLLE

Brief overview

SIMPPLLE is a spatially-explicit, dynamic landscape modeling system for projecting temporal changes in the spatial distribution of vegetation in response to insects, disease, wildland fire and other natural and management caused disturbances. SIMPPLLE is designed to provide a balance between incorporating enough complexity and interactions in modeling ecosystem processes to provide an acceptable level of realism while making simplifications in the choices on required data input requirements, required computer platforms and computing time to be a management tool useful in collaborative planning processes.

SIMPPLLE is designed to serve as a decision support system to help managers and resource specialists quantify and incorporate concepts that are often difficult to interpret for specific landscapes. Managers can use SIMPPLLE to help define and evaluate desired future conditions at landscape scales, to identify what parts of a landscape are more prone to disturbance processes over a given time frame, and to help design and evaluate different strategies for achieving desired future conditions.

SIMPPLLE is implemented with ecological knowledge associated with geographic zones. Currently all the geographic zones are within the United States:

Geographic zones: Forest Service – Westside Region One, Montana and Idaho; Forest Service – Eastside Region One, Montana and Idaho; Sierra Nevada - Yosemite National Park, CA; Southern California; South Central Alaska - Kenai Peninsula, AK; Gila National Forest, NM; South West Utah; Michigan; Colorado Front Range; Colorado Plateau; Western Great Plains Steppe; Mixed Grass Prairie; Great Plains Steppe; Teton – Northwest Wyoming; Northern Central Rockies;

However the underlying object design of the system makes it possible to create new geographic zones for other ecosystems throughout the world.

System origin

SIMPPLLE was developed by Jim Chew, USDA Forest Service, as a management tool for the Northern Region of the Forest Service(Chew 1995, Chew and others 2004). Through the Joint Fire Sciences program (http://www.firescience.gov/) it was expanded into eight other geographic areas to test it and other models’ capabilities to design and evaluate fuel treatments at landscape scales (Weise and others 2006). Additional work with the FRAME project in Mesa Verde National Park (Turner and others 2008) has expanded the system into the Colorado Plateau. Work with the Ecosystem Management Research Institute (http://www.emri.org/) has expanded SIMPPLLE into grassland ecosystems.

The initial release of version 1.0 was in 1997. The current version available is 2.5. Version 3.0 is under development with USGS and Northern Arizona University, “Regional Dynamic Vegetation Model for the Colorado Plateau: A Species- Specific Approach”, http://www.niccr.nau.edu/cobb_abs.html

SIMPPLLE has been used for Forest Service project planning (Slaughter and others 2004), resource management planning on both National Forests (USDA 2008) and Bureau of Land Management lands (USDI 2005), for ecosystem assessments on National Grasslands (Haufler and others 2009) and in State wildlife management plans (State of South Dakota 2006). SIMPPLLE was utilized by a group of timber companies and conservation organizations to prepare a land management approach for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest (Ecosystem Resource Group 2006).

Support for specific issues

SIMPPLLE has been used to quantify possible historic ranges of variability, desired future conditions, and levels of treatments for project planning (Slaughter and others 2004), resource management planning on both National Forests (USDA 2008) and Bureau of Land Management lands. (USDI 2005), for ecosystem assessments on National Grasslands (Haufler and others 2009) and in State wildlife management plans (State of South Dakota 2006).

Within the flexibility that SIMPPLLE offers to address a range of issues, it offers some common elements:

• Disturbance processes are simulated as stochastic occurrences in time and space. • Spatially explicit vegetation patterns interact with disturbance processes. • Multiple simulations of stochastic processes help managers view scenarios as a range of possible outcomes.

Access to system knowledge through the user interface, the common computer platforms used, and the rapid simulation time all make SIMPPLLE useful in collaborative planning processes (Turner and others 2008).

Support for specific thematic areas of a problem type

Silvicultural

Conservation
Restoration
Development choices / land use zoning
Policy/intervention alternatives
Sustainability impact assessment (SIA)

A wide range of types of problems are supported such as designing and testing silvicultural, restoration, and conservation strategies. Long simulations of hundreds of years can be utilized to address sustainability assessments.

Capability to support decision making phases

(NOTE I do not quite know what to do with this, as I do not understand it myself, although it seems related to system use)

(Click here to see a more detailed explanation)

Intelligence (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)
Design (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)
Choice (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)
Monitor (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)

Related systems

Describe (and/or link to) other systems related

Data and data models

Typical spatial extent of application

Define the scale of use for the application (user defined, regional, multi-owner forest single ownership forest, Multiple scale interaction)

Forest data input

Describe the basic forest input (forest level, stand level, or individual tree level), and appropriate meta-data, such as data provenance (Areal coverage, Sample of plots, stands, Contiguous forest cover). GIS information is to be considered here, namely include cover tyes and type of information (raster or vectorial, necessity of topological information) If necessary describe surrogate sources of information

If necessary describe other types of required data (economic, social)

Type of information input from user (via GUI)

Describe what is the information that the user directly inputs in the system if any): expert knowledge, opinion, goals and production objectives, preferences, stand/site information....

Models

Forest models

Growth, Yield, Carbon, Wood quality, biodiversity and habitat suitability, environmental and external effects (fire, storms, pests, diseases, climate change, etc)

Social models

historical and cultural values of sites, values due to peace and quiet, esthetic values, values due to recreational activities, ethical values): E. g. Recreation, Health, Game

Decision Support

Definition of management interventions

Define what is available for the manager to intervene in the forest: time of harvest, plantations, thinnings, reconversions... Existence of prescription writer, simple enumeration of all possibilities, scenario simulation , etc.

Typical temporal scale of application

Define the temporal scale of the application: E.g., operational and immediate level, Tactical planning (short term) and strategic level.

Types of decisions supported

Management level
- strategic decisions
- administrative decisions
- operating control decisions
Management function
planning decisions
- organizing decisions
- command decisions
- control decisions
- coordination decisions
decision making situation
- unilateral
- collegial
- Bargaining / participative decision making

Decision-making processes and models

Logic modeling
Operations research modeling
- Direct approaches
- Heuristic manipulation of simulation models
Business modeling
Simulation (with and without stochasticity)
Multiple criteria/ranking
Other

Output

Types of outputs

Types of outputs produced (tables, maps, 3-D visualizations, pre-programmed summaries, etc)

Spatial analysis capabilities

integrated capabilities
facilitates links to GIS (wizards, etc.)
provides standard data import/export formats
allows spatial analysis (e.g. topology overlays (e.g. multi layering of different maps, selection of objects based on selection criteria, aggregation by attributes (e.g. areas of similar characteristics), Linking by logical means, Statistics by area, analysis with digital terrain model)

Abilities to address interdisciplinary, multi-scaled, and political issues

Evaluate interactions between different basic information types (biophysical, economic, social). Produce coordinated results for decision makers operating at different spatial scales facilitate social negotiation and learning

System

System requirements

Operating Systems: (Windows, Macintosh, Linux/UNIX, Web-based, Others)
Other software needed (GIS, MIP packages, etc...)
Development status

Architecture and major DSS components

Describe the basic architecture of the system in software and hardware. Desktop client-server, web based, as well as the integration with available systems. Basic data flow, focusing on retrieval of required input and propagation and implementations of decisions. Mention its modular and scalability capabilities.

Usage

Describe the level of use: Research level use, Industry use, Government use

Computational limitations

Describe the system limitations: e.g. number of management units, number of vehicles, time horizon

User interface

Describe the quality of user interface and the Prerequisite knowledge for using the system

Documentation and support

Describe the connection to Help-system and possibilities for assistance, as well as the required training and user support levels

Installation

Prerequisite knowledge: Level of effort to become functional
Cost: (purchase price, development costs, demonstrated return on investment, cost of use, training costs, licence and maintenance costs)
Demo: allows the download/utilization of a trial version. If yes, where is it available and what are the trial conditions.

References

Cited references

External resources