Numerical Modelling at NABO

Two major modelling efforts currently exist within the NABO community, operating on environments in the North Atlantic. The Stirling-based group has developed Búmodel (originally by Amanda Thompson: Thomson, 2003 and subsequent papers), which is an environmental simulation model of historical land management and grazing pressure. The Stirling group are working on modelling and GIS-related applications at the scale of the individual landholding up to the scale of a community. Models are tested against soil and sedimentary data from the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland.

The Edinburgh based group has developed a landscape-scale model of climate and environment (PLACE: Casely, 2006 and subsequent papers), as well as new developments of population models for Iceland by Richard Streeter, and snowcover modelling being developed by Laura Comeau. Both groups and modelling strategies are involved in the Leverhulme Trust funded project "Footprints on the Edge of Thule".

PLACE and Bumodel outputs for the Mývatn area
PLACE and Bumodel outputs for the Mývatn area, N Iceland. PLACE outputs warmer (left) to cooler (right)

References

Casely, A.F. 2006. Medieval climate change and settlement in Iceland. PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh. 243pp.

Casely, A.F. and Dugmore, A.J. 2007. Good for glaciers, bad for people? Archaeologically relevant climate models developed from reconstructions of glacier mass balance. Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 1763-1773.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2006.12.014

Thomson, A.M., 2003. A modelling approach to farm management and vegetation degradation in pre-modern Iceland. PhD Thesis, University of Stirling, Stirling, 301 pp.
http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/dspace/handle/1893/23