Making Dynamic Vegetation Models More Accessible: The SEIB-Explorer Run-and-View Environment

Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) play a central role in assessing ecosystem responses to climate change, yet their increasing complexity and technical requirements often limit their accessibility beyond specialist communities. In this presentation, I introduce SEIB-Explorer, a standalone platform that couples the execution of the individual-based SEIB-DGVM with interactive three-dimensional visualization and lightweight analysis tools. The software provides a graphical user interface that streamlines model execution and result exploration, lowering the barrier to entry for non-specialists.

SEIB-Explorer enables users to visualize forest structure at a single site as a virtual stand, with plant functional types clearly distinguished and temporal changes examined through an interactive time slider. Multiple information panels summarize model metadata, annual fluxes, and time series of carbon, water, and vegetation-related variables. A visually enhanced display mode further supports interpretability for educational use and public engagement.

By integrating model execution, visualization, and basic exploratory analysis within a single environment, SEIB-Explorer reduces technical and cognitive overhead while promoting reproducible workflows and interdisciplinary exchange. This approach demonstrates how improved accessibility and interpretability can broaden the impact of DGVMs in research, education, and outreach contexts.

Figure 1.
SEIB-Explorer execution view (standard display mode). This example shows a mixed conifer–broadleaf forest in northern Hokkaido, Japan, after 100 simulation years from bare ground under late-20th-century climate conditions (e.g., 1981–2000).

Figure 3. Eight example views from the left-hand information panel. All panels correspond to the same simulation year and output as Fig. 1: (a) legend, (b) annual flux summary, (c) seasonal cycle of carbon variables, (d) seasonal cycle of water variables, (e) seasonal cycle of atmospheric variables, and (f) seasonal cycle of radiative balance.