Overview of a Methodology for Developing and Assessing Simulation Models of Complex Systems

in computer hardware, recent reviews have concluded that such models have generally not fulfilled their potential for advancing ecological understanding. This state of
affairs is at least partially the result of little attention being given to methodological issues for developing simulation models. I will present a tri-part methodology using examples from previous modeling work that had the goal of advancing ecological understanding. The first part of this methodology locates the modeling process in the
context of general research planning and thus emphasizes the process of synthesis - combining the constituent pieces of knowledge into a unified description of the entities and processes comprising the system to be modeled. The second methodological step involves operationalizing this synthetic description into a model design in which components are specified over three scalar hierarchical levels. In this specification, explanations about the