Interactive Component Modelling System - ICMS

ICMS Main Features

This page highlights the main features of ICMS. Further descriptions can be found in many of our publications.

ICMS allows you to:

Describe Problems and Solutions
Build and Run Models
Plug-and-play existing models
Explore Models and Data
Package and Distribute Models

Describing Problems and Solutions

In ICMS, your system is designed graphically on a workspace (or a canvas). The system can be either spatial, process or both. This allows you to break your 'problem' into manageable chunks.

A spatial view as represented in ICMS

A process view as represented in ICMS

Build and Run Models

Models are built up from separate algorithms which are linked using the GUI. The following example shows a series of linked routing models which transport flow through a series of subcatchments. ICMS manages the data and model linking. In addition it incorporates run managers which control model execution. This gives great flexibility, particularly when dealing with time series data as the system knows about time and the time stamps of all the temporal data in the system.

Models are written in MickL, the ICMS internal language. This language, a variant of C, has been specifically written to support model description and processing. Writing models within the system provides powerful functionality to ICMS to build links between models, data and representations and is core to the ICMS paradigm.

Explore Models and Data

As well as being able to focus on just the model code, ICMS allows you to view any of the data variables (input and/or output) which are used during a model run. The first diagram below shows a view of the model code.

View of model code in ICMS

Examples of graph, map & tabular views

Package and Distribute Models

Models with a related purpose can be packaged into model libraries. These can be shared with other ICMS users and are intended to provide an efficient and fast method of disseminating new models.