Getting Started with Miterra-Europe

Prerequisites

For model users

GAMS

GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System) is a high-level modelling system for mathematical programming and optimization. The Miterra-Europe model is written in the GAMS language, and requires a GAMS runtime to operate. Download and install the latest GAMS release from https://www.gams.com/download/.

A licence is required to run the GAMS software. The paid licence includes extra options, such as the use of solvers, which is not needed by Miterra-Europe. The free demo licence is recommended for regular use, which must be renewed every 5 months. The renewal can be done by downloading and installing the latest version of GAMS. See https://www.gams.com/sales/licensing/ for more information about licensing.

GAMS Studio

GAMS Studio is bundled with the official GAMS release (no need for separate installation), and provides basic functionality for writing code in GAMS language. GAMS Studio also includes features that are useful for debugging the model.

For model developers

GTree

GTree is a code editor for the GAMS language developed internally at Wageningen University & Research. GTree provides a set of useful features for the GAMS language, especially the treeview for model codes, which is extremely helpful for viewing Miterra-Europe structure. The development of GTree has been stopped since 2015, however, the last version is still operable on the latest Windows 11. GTree may be downloaded from SSM-WEnR/gams-tools-gtree.

Git

Git is a distributed version control system. It is used to manage the source code of Miterra-Europe. Download Git from https://git-scm.com/downloads and install it on your system.

After installation, open the terminal and type git --version to check if the installation was successful.

We recommend using a graphical user interface (GUI) to accompany Git, such as SourceTree.

Installation

The source code of Miterra-Europe is hosted on GitHub as a private repository ( SSM-WEnR/miterra-model-europe). Make sure you have the necessary previllege to access the repository.

For model users (no Git tracking)

If you simply want to run the model and examine the output, you can download the repository as a zip file and extract it to a directory of your choice.

For model developers (with Git tracking)

Git tracking keeps a reference of your local copy to the original remote repository. For model developers, this allows you to keep track of your changes and to submit them to the original repository.

To clone the repository to your local machine, open the terminal, change the current directory to where you want to place the project, and type:

git clone https://github.com/SSM-WEnR/miterra-model-europe.git

This will create a new directory named miterra-model-europe and download the repository to that directory.

Run the Model

Launch GTree or GAMS Studio, from the menu bar, select File Open, and open the miterra-model-europe/source/Miterra_Europa.gms file.

Press F9 to run the model.

When using GTree, if you get the error message “GAMS program not found”, you need to manually select the GAMS version from menu GAMS Find GAMS versions, choose the directory where GAMS is installed, and click Find.