Research in natural resource management may be characterized as a search for an understanding of patterns and processes relating to a particular resource. Modeling is a crucial tool to these efforts: resource scientists use such models to help them conceptualize, understand, test, predict, or assess various aspects of the resource being studied. One central function, however, underlies all of these uses: a model simulates the way in which a real system would behave under conditions of interest to the user, and illustrates changes over time. Such a model may be used to determine the consequences of particular situations, leaving judgment of the attractiveness of those consequences to the user. Particularly in the case of complex ecosystems, such a model may also serve to clarify interactions and contribute to a deeper understanding of ecological phenomena. In recent years, computer-based models have become the most significant tool of resource managers, for two reasons. First, any model must accurately portray the real system it represents if research based on the model is to have any reliability. The use of computer technology has greatly increased the extent and the detail to which ecosystems can be modeled, and thus the accuracy of these models. The other reason for the extensive use of computer models is the flexibility that the computer as a tool brings to the modeling process. Many ecosystems are poorly understood, and complex models for such poorly understood systems are almost never completed. Rather, modeling such a system is an iterative process, with a partial understanding generating new hypotheses, which in turn generate changes to the model based on further research. Computer technology brings flexibility and ease of modification to the modeling process, naturally supporting this iterative development. In addition, as the alternatives available in resolving resource management problems become increasingly expensive, and the resources themselves become increasingly scarce and valuable, such models become vital tools not only in the direct management of resources, but in the control of expenses associated with resource management as well.
A Tool for the Analysis and Characterization of School Mathematical Models
