Author(s): Hong Li
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Scale coupling model; FICA; Delft3D; Fuzzy Inference system; Complex Automata; Algal dynamics modelling
Abstract: Algal growth and population outbreaks are highly complex phenomena, which involve many aspects such as physical, chemical, ecological and biological processes. The description of the dominant processes usually depends on the choice of spatial and temporal scales, which may lead to different representations of spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Modelling such complex processes is rather difficult and hardly accurate because of the limited understanding of the mechanisms involved and extremely limited availability of adequate spatial and temporal measurements for water quality and ecological data. This triggered to research the need for the identification and simulation of dominant processes at different scales. Phenomena on a finescale tend to have much higher spatial neighbourhood interaction and the local environment may have more effects on species abundance, in case of e. g. algal growth. This paper proposes a scale coupled Fuzzy Inference Complex Automata (FICA) model which combines fine scale algal population dynamics modelling with the larger scale Delft3D hydrodynamics and transport model. In the FICA model, a fuzzy inference system is used for modelling the relationship between external forcing and algal biomass, and a Complex Automata model is used for modelling the influence of flow by online coupling with the Fuzzy Inference system. In this study, the traditional Cellular Automata Moore stencil was extended towards a weighted Moore and irregularly varied Cellular Automata stencil, which lead to the neighbourhood schemes which are proposed here for Complex Automata. Different spatiotemporal scales are coupled in FICA. Preliminary applications show the feasibility of scale coupling in algal population dynamics modelling.
Year: 2007