GreenLab Course
Principles
From real plant measurements to simulated stands
Modelling / simulation workflow
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In most of functional structural plant models, the modelling flow chart generates
the plant and crop simulation results from several steps.
- Measurements at single plant level
- Building of the plant structure: organogenesis
- Definition of the plant functioning: biomass production
- Building, if required, the 3D plant structure
- Building applications at crop level
In software implementations, this flowchart can be applied for each growth cycle or for a given final age.
In the examples and illustrations of this course, we use an implementation based on the following:
- The structure (or rather structural parts) are fully computed first
- Production is then computed for all growth stages, defining organ dimensions from the biomass produced by the leaves intercepting light
- A 3D structure is constructed if requested (but not required)
- Applications at stand level are issued, for instance by statistical studies based on stochastic simulations
Field observations consists of:
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1. Organ distributions (according to botanical architectural typology);
these help to define structural rules, laws of development, viability and branching.
2. Organ geometry analysis, in order to define allometries for each organ type
3. Organ weight/area in order to fit functional parameters
4. Stand information (such as density, for applications)
5. Climatic data (for applications, if not constant)
6. Specific geometric and optical information (for 3D reconstruction and rendering)