Using a submodel to specify an association between objects

Once our modelling language allows us to think in terms of multiple objects of a certain type, then it is frequently the case that we start to recognise relationships between objects. These relationships may be:

  • between objects of the same type: one tree shades another; one grid square is next to another; one person is married to another; or
  • between objects of one type and objects of another: one farmer owns a field; one field is close to a village.

Since Simile is a visual modelling language, and since such relationships are an important aspect of the design of a particular model, Simile provides visual elements to show diagramatically such relationships between objects. Unfortunately, the term 'relationship' is normally used in ecological modelling to refer to a relationship between variables (as opposed to objects), so we use the term 'association' instead. This is the same term used in UML (the Unified Modelling Language, the standard object-oriented design language used in the software-engineering community).

An association can itself have properties. We can, for example, have a variable representing the actual distance between a field and a village: this is a property of neither the field or the village, but of the association between them. In Simile, the submodel is the construct that is able to hold a number of quantities, therefore we use a submodel to represent an association: it is then called an association submodel.

However, such a submodel is simply a normal Simile submodel. It becomes an association submodel by virtue of being linked to the submodel (or submodels) representing the objects that have the association. The linking is done using role arrows: one role arrow is drawn for each type of object that participates in the association. Thus:

  • for the owns association between farmer and field, we draw a single role arrow from the farmer submodel to the owns association submodel, and one from the field submodel to the owns association submodel;
  • for the next to association between one grid square and another, we draw two role arrows from the grid square submodel to the next to association submodel: one role arrow represents the field under consideration, while the other represents its neighbour.