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Interactive Component Modelling System - ICMS

About ICMS

What is ICMS?

The Interactive Component Modelling System (ICMS) is a PC-based software product, developed to facilitate the rapid development and delivery of catchment science to catchment managers. It implements a 'layered' approach to development, and delivery, through the use of four components. These are:

• ICMSBuilder – the central engine 
• Models embedded in the ICMS MDL (model libraries) – proprietary, free-ware and newly-developed models
• ICMS Projects – suites of linked models, and their data
• ICMS Views – DLLs which provide tailored views of Projects

ICMSBuilder is the kernel which is used by all other components. It uses classes and objects to represent catchments and/or processes. With this approach, a complex graphical representation can be quickly 'drawn' by placing and linking objects of a particular class on a canvas. Models are introduced by the choice of object. Thus, linking objects also links their models and builds up a sequence of processes to be executed. The order of execution is determined by ICMSBuilder, based on the behaviour of the links. 

Model libraries (MDL) are a way to package and distribute models. Professional model developers are encouraged to write models which are then available, via model libraries, to be plugged into sympathetic ICMS Projects. Para-modellers, ie people who understand and implement models but are not model developers, can link models, import or input data and build Projects. 

Project is the term used to describe a set of classes, objects and their data. Projects are automatically created by ICMS and contain all the data and information necessary to open and copy an ICMS application.

ICMSBuilder has a suite of in-built tools for data display and result interpretation, which are sufficient for many audiences. However, these in-built views are general, e.g. spreadsheet view, graph view, raster view, map view. A protocol has been developed whereby an experienced programmer can write a tailored application to give a totally new 'view' of the Project, a view designed with a particular audience in mind. A view has full access to the functionality and power of the underlying engine, and all components of the Project. The services of a professional programmer are required to build a View, which is implemented as a DLL that 'talks to' ICMSBuilder.

Who is ICMS for?

ICMS provides catchment managers with a tool to develop and investigate a range of 'what if' scenarios for a range of complex issues important in their catchment. ICMS has been used to develop Projects that link:

• simple rainfall/runoff models with instream flow routing models to predict changes in flows in the Upper Murrumbidgee under different climate scenarios
• simple rainfall/runoff models with instream flow routing and regression models to predict changes in flows in the Namoi under different farm dam storage scenarios
• socio-economic models of crop selection with water allocation constraints, to predict effects on flows in the Namoi under different water allocation scenarios
• rainfall, ground and surface water models, with salinity and nutrient transport models to predict potential socio-economic impacts of expansion of dryland salinity in a south-west catchment in Western Australia.

ICMS has been designed for processing of simple representations of catchment behaviour and is not suitable for processing of spatially dense, or computationally intensive applications.

Who put ICMS together?

ICMS has been developed by CSIRO Land and Water in collaboration with the Australian National University, through its Integrated Catchment Assessment and Management (ICAM) Centre, with the assistance of the Land and Water Resources Research Development Corporation (LWRRDC), now known as Land & Water Australia.

More information

Further details about the specifics of ICMS can be found by exploring the Features and Publications pages. Or download the software and become a user to really explore the potential of ICMS.