What is the Appropriate Level of Detail for Modelling Agro-Ecological Processes in a Land-Use Optimisation Model?

This paper presents a model called the Land-Use Sequence Optimiser (LUSO). The model is designed to be a tool for finding optimal land-use sequences, with a particular focus on analysing the role of break crops within these optimal sequences. In order to achieve this aim, representations of the important agro-ecological processes that drive the need for break crops are including in the model. An overview of the modelling approach is presented first. This is followed by some details on the agro-ecological submodel. The important issue of the appropriate level of detail for representing these processes is then discussed, along with a proposed methodology for testing the effect of varying this level of detail in order to answer different questions, but without sacrificing the `keep-it-simple´ philosophy on which LUSO is based.