ABSTRACT
Within the broad range of environmental models presently developed, certain process models use parameters that increasingly in future will be derived from digital geographies held in GIS. We use the term spatial process model to distinguish those environmental models which have a strong element of spatial representation within the model structure. Some examples are models of soil erosion, surface insolation or water runoff which are strongly influenced by terrain variables, or models of animal or plant dispersal where the dispersal process is strongly influenced by the spatial pattern of land use within an area. Many examples have been reported of these kind of environmental process models being linked to GIS to permit practical enquiries, problem solving and hypothesis formulation in a diversity of environmental sciences (see for example, Moore et al. (1993), Goodchild et al. (1996), Kovar and Nachtnebel (1996), Johnston (1998)).
