Example Applications

Radiocaesium contamination of the environment

Radiocaesium can be released into the environmental following nuclear accidents (or, heaven forbid, by the detonation of nuclear weapons). It is readily transferred through the food chain, for example after the Chenobyl nuclear accident in 1986 there was widespread radiocaesium contamination in large parts of Europe.

Radioactive Sheep

This example implements the model of Galer et al 1993 describing the transfer of radiocaeisum in sheep. OpenModel is used to solve a set of simultaneous differential equations and fit the model to observations. The example provides a good illustration of some of the practical issues that arise when using observed values for fitting and demonstrates the use of multiple parameterisations within OpenModel.

Using Variable Replacement: soil to plant transfer of radiocaesium

This example implements the model of Absalom et al (2001) describing the transfer of radiocaeisum from soil to vegetation. OpenModel is used to solve a static model, iterating over a series of different sites with driving inputs for each site.  The example illustrates model fitting and demonstrates the use of variable replacement using the methods of Crout et al (2009).

Full details and model files for these examples and others are in the OpenModel download.