Notes:
======

Contents
--------
fss22.tar.gz:	gzip, tar archive of FSSIM v2.2 for Solaris 2.5.1/2.6
fss30.tar.gz:   gzip, tar achived of FSSIM v3.0 for Solaris 2.5.1/2.6
fss22.zip:	WinZip archive of FSSIM v2.2 for Win32 (Windows95/NT)
fss30.zip:	WinZip archive of FSSIM v3.0 for Win32 (Windows95/NT)
fssim_user.pdf  Adobe PDF scan of FSSIM Users Manual
fssim_tech.doc  MS Word FSSIM Technical Report (February 1997)

All distributions contain a sample data set which is intended to illustrate expected 
file formats, not to demonstrate full functionality.


Changes in aggregation methodology ( v2.2 and v3.0 )
----------------------------------
Previous versions of FSSIM contained an "Aggregation [On/Off]:" flag in config.dat 
which allowed the user to switch aggregation on or off for a run.  

With aggregation  OFF, existing class area was spiked at the age specified in class.dat; 
regenerated area was distributed over an age-range equal to period-length; no aggregation 
took place and the landbase soon became massively fragmented, causing the dataset to grow
exponentially and FSSIM processing to slow proportionately.  

With aggregation ON, class area was aggregated into period-length wide classes at the 
beginning of every period (e.g. given a 10-year period, area was aggregated into classes 
1-10, 11-20, 21-30 and so on; a  5-year period would result in classes 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 
etc).  

There was some concern expressed about this aggregation methodology: with aggregation
OFF, run-times were becoming infeasibly long; with aggregation ON, age resolutions 
smaller than the period-length were lost (e.g. if regeneration prescribed  a regen delay 
of 2 years, an upper age of -2 should be assigned to the class.  However, under aggregation, 
this area would be aggregated and distributed evenly across the  -9 - 0 age range, assuming
a 10-year period).  

These versions of FSSIM address those concerns.  In these versions, the Aggregation
flag in config.dat has been removed, existing class area is automatically spiked
at the age given in class.dat and regenerated area is evenly distributed across the
age range [ RegenAge-PeriodLength+1 ... RegenAge ].  Like area is automatically
aggregated together, minimizing fragmentation of the landbase.   



Changes in reporting ( v3.0 only )
--------------------
In addition to the aggregation changes mentioned above, this version also 
contains revisions to the reporting capabilites of FSSIM.  In previous versions, 
if the group Report flag as specified in group.dat was set to Y, all reports 
were generated for that group in every period.  Given the recent trend toward 
ever increasing size and complexity of FSSIM datasets, this could very easily 
have led to reports several tens if not hundreds of Mb in size.  To ameliorate
this, users have now been given more control over what reports get generated.
To this end, the Report field of group.dat has been removed and a new data file,
reports.dat added.  The format of report.dat is as follows:

UnitType UnitID IHRS IHRE IMRS IMRE IHSS IHSE IMSS IMSE ARS ARE LRS LRE HRS HRE

where:
UnitType: ZONE or GROUP
UnitID:   Landunit label
IHRS: Inventory Area Report Start Period (inv_ha.rep)
IHRE: Inventory Area Report End Period (inv_ha.rep)
IMRS: Inventory Volume Report Start Period (inv_m3.rep)
IMRE: Inventory Volume Report End Period (inv_m3.rep)
IHSS: Inventory Area Summary Start Period (inv_ha.sum)
IHSE: Inventory Area Summary End Period (inv_ha.sum)   
IMSS: Inventory Volume Summary Start Period (inv_m3.sum)
IMSE: Inventory Volume Summary End Period (inv_m3.sum)
ARS:  Access Constraints Report Start Period (constraints.rep)
ARE:  Access Constraints Report End Period (constraints.rep)
LRS:  Harvest Level Report Start Period (levels.rep)
LRE:  Harvest Level Report End Period (levels.rep)
HRS:  Harvest Age Distribution Start Period (hage.rep)
HRE:  Harvest Age Distribution End Period (hage.rep)

The start and end period values must be integers; if you do not want reports
generated, specify values beyond the end of the planning horizon.  Only one
entry in reports.dat can be specified for a given landunit.  Thus, it is not 
possible to specify that you want reports generated for period 1 - 5 and then 
periods 12 - 17 for a unit.  No check is made to ensure that start period is 
less  than end period, that's up to the user.



Changes to transfer.dat data file format
----------------------------------------
The new format for transfer.dat is:
	Group Start End Zone AU Age ClassType ReversionAge
Previous versions had a Block field between AU and Age; this has been removed
to prevent area being moved from one block to another, which would impact adjacency
and other block-dependent calculations.