Idealisation and concretisation in construction of models applied to forest growth

The assumptions made by researchers about the nature of the research object, and about the proper methods to carry out research have a major effect on the results. A forest stand model is developed here using the method of idealisation and concretisation. The construction process proceeds with the steps of isolation, idealisation, concretisation, and approximation. The forest is divided into subsystems i.e. individual trees, metabolic processes, interactions between trees, regulation systems and death of trees. Models of each subsystem are constructed using idealising assumptions. The subsystems are connected to form the stand. The behaviour of the model is analysed briefly and finally, the role of the applied method is discussed.