Skip to main content

Development of mpi_EPIC model for global agroecosystem modeling

Agroecosystem models that can incorporate management practices and quantify environmental effects
are necessary to assess sustainability-associated food and bioenergy production across spatial scales.
However, most agroecosystem models are designed for a plot scale. Tremendous computational capacity
on simulations and datasets is needed when large scales of high-resolution spatial simulations are conducted.
We used the message passing interface (MPI) parallel technique and developed a master–slave
scheme for an agroecosystem model, EPIC on global food and bioenergy studies. Simulation performance
was further enhanced by applying the Vampir framework. On a Linux-based supercomputer, Cray XT7
Titan, we used 2048 cores and successfully shortened the running time from days to 30 min for a global
30 years of modeling of a bioenergy crop at the resolution of half-degree (62,482 grids) with the message
passing interface based EPIC (mpi_EPIC). The results illustrate that mpi_EPIC using parallel design can
balance simulation workloads and facilitate large-scale, high-resolution analyses of agricultural production
systems, management alternatives and environmental effects.

Author(s)
S. Kang
Contact Person
Keith Kline
Contact Organization
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Contact Phone
Contact Email
Bioenergy Category
Publication Date
DOI is live on OSTI.
Data Source
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture