R o c k y M o u n t ai n Re s e a r c h S ta ti o n , R e s e a r c h Wo r k U n i t 4 1 5 1 :
E c o l og y an d M an a g e me n t o f No r th e r n Ro c k y Mo u n t a i n Fo r e s t s
FACT SHEET: SIMPPLLE
L A N DS C A P E DYNAM I C S I M UL A T I O N SY S TE M
BAC KG RO U N D
The information for this
fact sheet was provided by
Jim Chew, Forester
jchew@fs.fed.us
406-542-4171
Project Leader
Elaine Kennedy Sutherland
esutherland@fs.fed.us
406-542-4169
March 2005
OBJECTIVE:
SIMPPLLE was designed as a management tool to facilitate the use of
landscape ecology concepts in designing and evaluating land management
alternatives for a range of planning
scales.
KEY DESIGN FEATURES:
• Spatially explicit, patterns of vegetation can influence the probability and
spread of disturbance processes across the landscape
• It’s total design includes landscape components of vegetation, land units,
aquatic units, and man-made units.
• Functional across a range of scales from thousands to millions of acres
• Provides a continuity in planning tools for strategic to tactical planning.
• Designed to work with existing inventory data in polygon or grid format.
• ArcView and ArcGIS extensions have been developed for spatial output
display.
• Stochastic disturbance processes. Probabilities are computed for each individual plant community in a landscape.
• Landscape simulations can start with a history of disturbance activities and
locking in current disturbance events from insect detection surveys.
• History of each vegetation unit development (treatments, insects or fire)
makes a difference in its response to disturbances.
• Schedules treatments which can be linked to changing vegetation attributes
and disturbance process occurrence.
• Links to other scheduling and optimization models such as MAGIS and
SPECTRUM
• SIMPPLLE operates on any computer system that supports a Java virtual
machine.
• Regional Climate changes and its relationship to fire suppression, insect
occurrence and intensity can be incorporated into simulations.
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The system knowledge is designed to build upon use of other modeling systems such as FVS on stands
or FIA plots to quantify pathway variables, and FARSITE on past fire events to quantify the type-offire and fire-spread logic.
System knowledge can be an integration of research results and expert opinion.
The user interface provides access to the system knowledge giving a user the ability to change it and
document its source.
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY— SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
1992 Proposal for a knowledge based system made by J. Chew while in Region One.
1993 “A Knowledge System Environment For the Application of Landscape Ecology Concepts”
presented at Application of Advanced Information Technologies: Effective Management of
Natural Resources, a Conference in Spokane, WA .
1995 Software Design complete and documented in PhD dissertation.
Chew, J.D. “Development of a System for Simulating Vegetative Patterns and Processes at
Landscape Scales.” Missoula: University of Montana: Ph.D. dissertation.
1997 SIMPPLLE version 1.0 delivered to Region One.
“Simulating Vegetation Patterns and Processes at Landscape Scales” presented at Integrating Spatial
Information Technologies for Tomorrow, Eleventh Annual Symposium on Geographic
Information Systems, GIS 97, a Conference in Vancouver, BC.
2003 Independent panel review of SIMPPLLE organized by WO, Inventory and Monitoring Institute.
2004 SIMPPLLE version 2.2 available on public ftp site.
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/missoula/4151/SIMPPLLE/software/dwnld.htm
Recent publication: Chew, J.D; Stalling, C.; Moeller, K. 2004. Integrating Knowledge for Simulation
Vegetation Change at Landscape Scales. Western Journal of Applied Forestry 19(2): 102-108.