Doctoral Dissertation Research: Comparing Computational Environmental Modeling Practices

建模，即复杂系统的简化表示的创建，一直是人们理解环境和与环境交互的一部分。最近，计算机支持了计算建模的发展，通过计算机模拟来研究复杂性。计算建模在环境研究和政策制定中变得越来越重要。这种新的和日益流行的建模实践提出了许多关于模型使用和模型选择的问题。计算模型是否调解了我们与它们所代表的环境系统之间的关系？这些效应与其他类型的模型有什么不同吗？为了解决这些问题并更广泛地探索计算建模的作用和影响，马里兰大学的博士生Jeremy Trombley在Michael J. Paolisso博士的建议下，将在切萨皮克湾地区进行研究。Trombley的研究有三个重点组成部分：1)检查一组特定的水动力模型-切萨皮克湾建模系统-在切萨皮克湾社会生态系统中发挥的作用；2)记录生产和使用这些模型的社会生态效应；3)对同一社会环境系统的替代计算建模实践的比较效果。Trombley将从科学家、政策制定者、环境管理者和农民那里收集数据，使用社会科学方法的组合，包括社会网络分析、参与者观察、半结构化访谈和结构化调查。理解关键的转变、转变和变化，包括人为过程的影响和新技术的影响，是美国国家科学基金会文化人类学计划项目组合的研究重点领域。该项目的调查结果将有助于该方案的重点。

Modeling, the creation of simplified representations of complex systems, has always been a part of how people understand and interact with their environments. Recently, computers have supported the development of computational modeling to study complexity through computer simulation. Computational modeling has become important in environmental research and policy-making. This new and increasingly prevalent modeling practice raises a number of questions about model use and model choice. Do computational models mediate our relationships to the environmental systems they are made to represent? Are these effects different from those of other kinds of models? To address these questions and explore the roles and effects of computational modeling more generally, University of Maryland doctoral student Jeremy Trombley, advised by Dr. Michael J. Paolisso, will undertake research in the Chesapeake Bay region. Trombley's research has three focal components: 1) an examination of the role that a particular set of hydrodynamic models -- the Chesapeake Bay Modeling System -- plays in the Chesapeake Bay socio-ecological system; 2) documenting the socio-ecological effects of producing and using these models; and 3) the comparative effects of an alternative computational modeling practice on the same socio-environmental system. Trombley will collect data from scientists, policy makers, environmental managers, and farmers using a combination of social science methodologies, including social network analysis, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and structured survey. Understanding critical transitions, transformations, and change, including the effects of anthropogenic processes and the impacts of new technologies, is a research emphasis area in the NSF Cultural Anthropology Program's project portfolio. Findings from this project will contribute to that Program focus.