Simulation of Agricultural and Biological Systems

The course focuses on the principles, tools and practice of working with crop models (and more generally system models). The course begins by teaching two basic tools; the R programming language, which will be used throughout the course, and statistical notions for system modeling. Also a simple crop model from the literature (appropriately named SIMPLE) is presented in detail and discussed. This illustrates the nature of dynamic system models, and is the basis for discussing some basic processes of plant  growth  and  development.  Importantly,  the  model  includes  effects  of  CO2  level.  Then  three essential methods of working with dynamic models are considered in detail; uncertainty and sensitivity analysis,  model  calibration  and  model  evaluation.  Throughout  the  course,  the  SIMPLE  model, programmed  in  R,  will  be  used  as  an  example  and  for  exercises.  The  textbook  is  “Working  with Dynamic Crop Models”, of which D. Wallach is first author.