TOWARDS A REPRESENTATION OF ENVIROMENTAL MODELS USING SPECIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE - From the Fibonacci Model to a Wildfire Model

Abstract

In this paper we explore how we can use Specification and Description Language (SDL) to represent environmental models. Since the main concern in this kind of models is the representation of the geographical information data, we analyze how we can represent this information in the SDL diagrams. We base our approach using two examples, a representation of the Fibonacci function using a cellular automaton, and the representation of a wildfire model. To achieve this we propose the use of a language extension to Specification and Description Language. This allows the simplification of the representation of cellular automatons. Thanks this we can define the behavior of environmental models in a graphical way allowing its complete and unambiguous description. SDL is a modern object oriented formalism that allows the definition of distributed systems. It has focused on the modeling of reactive, state/event driven systems, and has been standardized by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in the Z.100.