Hello all,

 

I am reading a textbook on ecology, and I get confused spatially explicit model and implicit model.

My understanding is that in spatially explicit model, the spacial information is clearly declared, while it is not declared in the other model.

 

Is this interpretation correct? Otherwise, what do they mean exactly?

explicit, fully and clearly expressed.

 

implicit, implied, not explicit, (hinted).

 

dictionary.reference.com

A model is spatially explicit when the variables, inputs, or processes have explicit spatial locations and, moreover, that location matters to the process being modeled. Nearly all landscape models are spatially explicit, since landscapes are fundamentally spatial entities. However, not all landscape-relevant questions require a spatial model to address. For example, many (earlier) metapopulation viability models are spatially implicit, not explicit. That is, the spatial subdivision and separation of habitat patches (i.e., local subpopulations) is implicit in the model, but the precise relative location of each patch is not specified or accounted for in the model.

 

(c) http://planet.botany.uwc.ac.za/NISL/BDC332/Landscape%20Ecology%20Text/chapter10_modeling.pdf

Sorry I wanted to clarify that explicit means specific (i.e specific locations like GPS coordinates), whilst implicit does not concentrate on specific locations of the agents (i.e you can talk about a general area, such as a continuous mountain area, which does not have a specific GPS coordinate)