Environmental process models describe the exchange of energy and materials through space and time and assess their impact on the environment. Many environmental process models are closed monolithic systems that cannot be easily modified. When dealing with increasingly complex environmental problems, multiple models are often involved in a single project, but only parts of each model are relevant. An ideal approach is to integrate only the relevant parts into a customized model or an interoperable model.

The interoperable modeling approach may fundamentally change the way environmental models are developed and used, as well as the way they integrate with geographic information systems (GIS) and other tools. This development is supported by both the research community and government agencies and is foreseen as an inevitable direction for ...