The increasing complexity and multidisciplinarity of environmental research and management problems, the spatial and cultural delocalization of research groups, and the increasing recognition of the need for a multiplicity of scales to be considered at the same time, are reasons for the need of integrating different modelling approaches into higher-level simulation models. Model integration is also a mean of developing successful collaborative research projects. Since different models are typically developed by different research groups, the availability of easy to use integrating tools encourages collaborative development of ideas and approaches, facilitating at the same time the identification of common research endeavors using existing models. The importance of integrative, collaborative tools in an increasingly complex modelling scenario has also less obvious justifications. In the case of ecological modelling, there is the distinct danger of tools preventing innovation.
Ecological science needs new concepts to formalize and understand the complexity of nature.
It is thus very important that tools do not constrain the researcher's thinking space within a specific view of natural complexity, but rather allow free space for thought by endorsing knowledge models which allow flexibility and reorganization. Complex computer-based modelling tools can make the use of existing approaches easier, but they can also make the development of new approaches and ideas more difficult, because of the constraints imposed by the approach or the interface. Developing integrative tools is a way to add flexibility and potential for reorganization without losing the convenience and power of existing modelling tools. The protocol can be used, unmodified, to develop a variety of services, including the implementation of web-based simulation interfaces, data retrieval systems, and remote model calibration services. In the following, the SNI is described and real life examples of the applications listed above are briefly illustrated.