Main medium: air+terrestrial Main subject: population dynamics, agriculture, meteorology Organization level: landscape, ecosystem Type of model: not specified Main application: Keywords: moths, migration, forecasting, pest management, simulation
Contact:
Wayne Rochester
Department of Entomology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane Qld 4072, Australia phone: 61 7 3365 2244 fax: 61 7 3365 1922 email: w.rochester@ctpm.uq.edu.au
GenSIM is a modelling program for estimating movements of highly mobile
insect pests such as heliothis moths and plague locusts. These insects
migrate by undertaking nocturnal, wind-assisted flights at heights of a
few hundred to over 2000 metres above the ground. They can move hundreds
of kilometres in a night, and may move longer distances by flying on
multiple nights.
The program estimates movements by simulating flights of individual
insects. The flight paths of the insects are determined by their flight
behaviour and the environmental conditions (particularly wind velocity)
they experience during flight. Flights may be simulated in reverse to
estimate source areas for specified immigration areas.
The two most common outputs of the program are individual flight paths
and maps of estimated destination or source areas. These areas are
estimated by accumulating the results of large samples of flights.
GenSIM is generally run as a component of larger systems rather than as
a standalone program. To date, it has been interfaced to the geographic
information system ARC/INFO, the scripting language Tcl/Tk and the World
Wide Web.
II. Technical Information
II.1 Executables:
Operating System(s): UNIX
II.2 Source-code:
Programming Language(s): C++
II.3 Manuals:
II.4 Data:
Wind data (e.g. from a numerical weather prediction model)
III. Mathematical Information
III.1 Mathematics
III.2 Quantities
III.2.1 Input
III.2.2 Output
IV. References
Rochester, W. A., Dillon, M. L., Fitt, G. P., and Zalucki, M. P. (1996) Asimulation model of long-distance migration of Helicoverpa spp. moths.Ecological Modelling 86: 151-156.
Last review of this document by: W. Rochester and T. Gabele: 23. 06. 1997
Status of the document: Contributed by Wayne Rochester last modified by
Tobias Gabele Wed Aug 21 21:44:44 CEST 2002