# The Rapid Initial Community Builder (RICB) V1.1 for LANDIS-II

## TL;DR

The RICB tool simplifies the setup of forest ecosystem models by automating the creation of initial forest communities for the LANDIS-II model.

## Contribution

RICB reduces the time and technical barriers for initializing forest landscape models using CONUS data and an executable package.

## Key findings

- RICB uses high-resolution CONUS data to generate initial forest communities.
- The tool modifies data for compatibility with the LANDIS-II model.
- An executable file eliminates coding barriers, speeding up model initialization.

## Abstract

Forest succession, or ecosystem process models, can aid in many land management decisions as they inherently incorporate ecological processes to predict how disturbances impact the resilience of the forest and its potential future structure. The landscape class of ecosystem process models are often ideal for management goals as they simulate individual tree species interactions through time at the landscape scale and offer a robust assortment of disturbance extensions. However, broad implementation and adoption are often limited as users must rebuild the landscape models for every new site of interest. Creation of the initial forest communities that all model simulations depend on, can be particularly time consuming. To address this issue, we created the Rapid Initial Community Builder (RICB) that:•Starts with high resolution CONtinental United States (CONUS) forest coverage and type data.•Makes modifications to the data for use in the landscape class ecosystem process model LANDIS-II.•Packages everything in an executable file that eliminates coding language or version barriers.Thus, greatly reducing the initialization time often associated with the intensive data assimilation techniques commonly used to generate initial communities.

Starts with high resolution CONtinental United States (CONUS) forest coverage and type data.

Makes modifications to the data for use in the landscape class ecosystem process model LANDIS-II.

Packages everything in an executable file that eliminates coding language or version barriers.

Image, graphical abstract