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vsoil-processes is dedicated to the manipulation of concepts of:

From the description of the phenomena and their inputs/outputs, it allows the creation of processes and skeletons:

Processes are used to create modules via the dedicated software.
Skeletons are used to create models using dedicated software.

We present on this page what you can do with vsoil-processes software. From the description of the phenomena (physical, biological and chemical) and their inputs / outputs, it allows to create processes, input and output variables for these processes, and skeletons:

Apart from and before any computer implementation, the VSoil modelling platform makes it possible to describe physical, chemical or biological phenomena with their input and output variables. It is through these that the VSoil platform can automatically determine the dependencies between processes and therefore their interactions. The graphical interface of the vsoil-processes software shows these three parts: processes, input and output variables and interactions. They are described in the following sections.

Create a process

A VSoil process describes a phenomenon, identified by its name. Its possible interactions with other processes are defined by two disjoint variables lists: its inputs and its outputs. From the list of input variables, the platform determines the processes on which it depends. From the list of output variables, the platform determines the processes that depend on it. This allows you to obtain directed graphs, automatically generated by VSoil. These represent all possible couplings between processes. They are called skeletons in the platform. Part of the graphical interface of the vsoil-processes software is dedicated to the display of this information, automatically updated.

To create a process, the user can choose to start from scratch or copy an existing one, close to their needs. It is also possible that a VSoil process designates the desired phenomenon, but modifications need to be made, for example by adding interactions with another process. In this case, you must add input or output variables to the process. This is possible in the VSoil platform, including with official processes, by nature non-modifiable.

Note: in fact, VSoil does not allow you to modify the internal structure of an official process. It only allows adding input or output variables on the existing.

Refer to the vsoil-processes user manual, chapter 6 "Edition et modification des processus" to learn more about creation of processes.

Create an input or output variable

An input or output variable within the VSoil platform represents a physical, chemical or biological quantity. It is a measurable value with a unit and possibly a location, in the ground or at its interfaces. In the platform, the soil is seen as a vertical profile, going from the surface to a given depth. Three locations are possible: in the whole soil profile, at its surface or at the bottom. In the first case, the variable will be described by a set of values distributed throughout the profile (vector), otherwise it will be described by a single value (scalar).

An input or output variable has a unique and unambiguous name with respect to other variables. To this end, the vsoil-processes graphical interface offers an open list of terms dedicated to the user. Then, it guides to compose them, drawing inspiration from the semantics of The Extensible Observation Ontology OBOE. If the composition of the terms leads to a name close to other existing variables in the platform, the user is notified.

Refer to the vsoil-processes user manual, chapter 7 "Edition et modification des variables" to learn more about creation of input or ouput variables.