Inputs

Subtask Description:
Identify inputs and useful variables, assess relevance, and assemble metadata.

Action points of the implementation:

Identify conservative imports and information inputs, such as river discharge or meteorological data, which will not be calculated within the model but provided as tables of data or simple functions (such as a sine wave for solar irradiance).
Identify any removals, losses, or exports, which will be dealt with in the same way; for examples: animal mortality due to a hunting quota (table of monthly kills); fixed rents or taxes.
Identify inputs that are the subjects of scenarios, such as monthly number of tourists, for which there might be several sets of data.
Identify where these inputs connect to the cause-&-effect chains in the Virtual System and decide whether they are conservative quantities, directly adding to or subtracting from model state variables, or information that acts indirectly through controls on rates.
Identify variables that can will probably be used for testing or calibrating the sub-model or functional unit; these might be state variables (e.g., salinity, chlorophyll concentration, cash value of capital equipment), fluxes (e.g. primary production, income from sale of mussels), or `indicators' as agreed with stakeholders.
Assess their relevance (i.e. the priority that should be assigned to them in acquisition of data).
Decide whether your tests will involve simulation of specific events (e.g. for the year 2009) or of characteristic patterns (e.g. for generalized seasonal cycle); this may be decided by relevance and data availability for forcing and testing.
Assemble information about these inputs including descriptions, units, main effects within the (virtual) system, relevance/priority, data source (details of person, institution, published work, web-page, etc.).

Result: a table of the input metadata and functions necessary for the simulation analysis.

Area:
Mar Piccolo, Taranto, Italy

Policy Issue:
Sustainable use of the Mar Piccolo resources in order to include mussel culture.

Human Activities:
Urban and industrial activity, mussel culture, urbanization, shipping, maritime transport.

General Information:
The area has many conflicting activities but, in addition, has always been one of the most important mussels farming areas in the country. In particular, fishing, distribution, catering, tourism, transport, import and export are activities directly connected to aquaculture which, in turn, bring an economic improvement and therefore a greater social welfare. However external factors, such as social problems or illegal aquaculture plants that over-exploit the existing natural resources, are causing damage to the ecosystem. During recent years, data from the local market evidenced quantity and quality reduction of the harvested mussels. The major stakeholder concerns are connected to the sustainable development and welfare of the activity.

Example of Implementation:(Click on tumbnail for full version):

Comments:
This is an example of an input data table, regarding the economic system of Mar Piccolo. The table provides almost the same fields as those provided in the previous two examples and has been included to demonstrate the variability that can be found within economic inputs and variables for a certain policy issue.

Contact: Carmela Caroppo, carmela.caroppo@iamc.cnr.it .