A new cellular automaton: five elements balance chart and its application to forest industry ecosystem

We propose a new cellular automaton, i.e. five elements balance chart, based on the theory of five elements, which is one of the most important parts of traditional Chinese philosophy. There are five kinds of basic elements in five elements balance chart, i.e. wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Ancient Chinese thought used the relations of creating and controlling within the five elements to analogize the relationship between all situations and beings. In the proposed method, each element can be regarded as a cell. The transition rules are constructed according to the principle of creating and controlling. Thus, these rules are simple and intuitive. A simulation model of the forest industry ecosystem is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach. The five elements balance chart can well evaluate the balance status of the ecosystem. It also can help us to predict the quantitative variations of each member in the ecosystem.