Coupled fire–atmosphere feedback is essential for modeling wildland fire spread, especially extreme fire phenomena. In this chapter, the suite of current and emerging tools capable of modeling this complexity is examined; these tools now dominate fundamental wildland fire research and are starting to be applied to fire operations, training, and planning. Some of the barriers to progress and challenges to validating these tools highlighted in this chapter suggest more emphasis on three areas: a scale-dependent and purposeful approach to comparing model results with appropriate observations, recognizing the limitations of each; the quantification of the errors and under-specifications in fuel properties and the impact of each; and assessing large-scale simulations and directing observations to address priority research gaps, from a position informed by the vast catalog of atmospheric scientific research.

This is a central chapter of the book, providing an overview on approaches to link ecology and economics in models, again using examples from the literature. The first sections focus on links between the ecological and economic system components that can lead to coupled ecological-economic dynamics. In the following sections it is argued that the consideration of these dynamics only focuses on the supply side of biodiversity which, among other things, addresses the question of how biodiversity can be conserved cost-effectively. Of equal importance, however, is the demand side that concerns the values humans attach to biodiversity. Two different approaches for the integration of supply and demand sides are outlined, which allow for an analysis of the efficiency of biodiversity conservation policies and strategies.

Ecological-economic modelling has advantages but also involves some challenges. Two advantages are presented: the incompatibility of disciplinary solutions which prevents the derivation of good integrated ecological-economic policies and strategies from purely disciplinary research results and feedback loops so that the ecological system component affects the economic one and vice versa. The relevance of these two issues is demonstrated in examples from the literature. A challenge to ecoological-economic modelling is that ecological and economic models often differ in their purposes and features, such as the consideration of uncertainty and spatial structure. The discussion is supported by a literature review on ecological, economic and ecological-economic models. Despite differences between the disciplines’ modelling approaches, ecology and economics share a number of concepts that facilitate integrated modelling, concepts which are outlined in the final section of the chapter.