Overview of computer simulations- Winter School on Towards Ecosystem Based Management of Marine Fisheries – Building Mass Balance Trophic and Simulation Models

摘要

Computer simulation is the discipline of designing a model of an actual or theoreticaludphysical system, executing the model on a digital computer, and analyzing the executionudoutput. Simulation embodies the principle of ``learning by doing'' - to learn about theudsystem we must first build a model of some sort and then operate the model. The use ofudsimulation is an activity that is as natural as a child who role-plays. Children understand theudworld around them by simulating (with toys and figurines) most of their interactions withudother people, animals and objects. As adults, we lose some of this childlike behavior butudrecapture it later on through computer simulation. To understand reality and all of itsudcomplexity, we must build artificial objects and dynamically act out roles with them.udComputer simulation is the electronic equivalent of this type of role-playing and it serves touddrive synthetic environments and virtual worlds.