Research PaperGeneration of extensible ecosystem models from a network structure and from locally executable programs

•We generate editable structure from a network and from locally executable programs.•We generate executable dynamic balance model from this programmed structure.•The simulation can be interpreted and executed by a general program.•This supports the easy extension and connectivity of the process models.•This gives an easily connectible approach for ecosystem modelling and simulation.

Analysis and planning of the Water/Food/Energy Nexus must be extended with the Ecosystem related interactions. Considering this, present work studies the further development and implementation of a methodology that has already been tried for the modelling and simulation of other processes within the Nexus. This methodology aims to support the unified and integrated dynamic modelling of multidisciplinary process networks, instead of interfacing amongst various field-specific tools. An additional challenge, inspired also by different approaches of food web modelling, is to build bridge between the topological network analysis and the mass/energy conservation based dynamic simulation of the underlying (often non-linear) processes. In the proposed framework the generated model appears in form of a modifiable and extensible GraphML structure that, having edited, may be interpreted into a model database for a general purpose simulation program. A very simple, food web example helps to illustrate the general method.