Home

This wiki provides guidance in navigating and understanding modeling design principles under the ANSE framework. It is designed for ANSE users to consult for specific details or assistance, however the readers can choose to peruse the entire document at their discretion.

What is ANSE?

ANSE stands for Abstract Network Simulation Engine. It is a system dynamics modeling framework. While most of the models under the ANSE-family are related to carbon modeling in harvested wood products (HWP), due to its abstract nature, the framework may extend its utility beyond the realm of carbon within the bioeconomy.

ANSE provides users with an infrastructure for dynamically constructing, validating, running, and analyzing simulations of the flow and transformation of carbon mass through the supply chain of the forest industry over time and space. Users can define mass-balance models and then run simulations that account for carbon dynamics of HWP. The software provides both the necessary components for constructing models and the rules for specifying how these components are defined and interact. All parameters and data for user-built models are defined and stored externally from the system.

The software’s flexibility accommodates many user-built models with different analytical goals, scales, and data sources. These models can represent real-world systems that control the movement and physical transformation of the carbon in wood from the time the wood is harvested until the carbon returns to the atmosphere, and of any other clearly defined stage of the carbon's fate.