J. van de Koppel,1, R. van de Vijsel1, L. Cornacchia1, R. Bidarra2, and T.J. Bouma1
1 NIOZ, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
2 TUDelft, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Introduction
Virtual ecosystems combine fast mathematical models that integrate ecology, hydrodynamics and geomorphology with interactive 3D environments. They can provide a promising tool for managers, policymakers and the general audience to interact with scientific results, and gain insight and impressions of forecasted ecosystems. To create an interactive system, models are needed that can provide the speed and scale needed for the detailed predictions on which visualization can be based. Moreover, new techniques are needed that can provide the details required to provide a believable depiction of a natural system.
Approach
By using models that nest natural patterns at different scales (e.g., sand ripples, ecological patterns) a realistic depiction of modeled landscapes can be generated. I will demonstrate how self-organization models can be used within the context of virtual ecosystems to quickly build representations of natural ecosystems. These representations can then be used to evaluate whether outcome of restoration measures or "building-with-nature" programs will appeal to policy makers and the general audience, and assess whether it is likely to agree to their expectations of the outcome of restoration programs.
Figure 1 A 3D depiction of a mussel restoration project with the mussel patterns generated by a self-organization model. Note the nesting of patterns to generate this scene.
