Modelling complex systems such as agroecosystems often requires the quantification of a large number of input factors. Sensitivity analyses are useful to determine the appropriate spatial and temporal resolution of models and to reduce the number of factors to be measured or estimated accurately. Comprehensive spatial and temporal sensitivity analyses were applied to the NitroScape model, a deterministic spatially distributed model describing nitrogen transfers and transformations in rural landscapes. Simulations were led on a theoretical landscape that represented five years of intensive farm management and covering an area of 3 km². Cluster analyses were applied to summarize the results of the sensitivity analysis on the ensemble of model outputs. The methodology we applied is useful to synthesize sensitivity analyses of models with multiple space-time input and output variables and could be ported to other models than NitroScape.

对复杂系统（例如农业生态系统）进行建模通常需要对大量输入因素进行量化。敏感性分析可用于确定模型的适当时空分辨率，并减少要准确测量或估计的因素的数量。全面的时空敏感性分析应用于NitroScape模型，该模型是确定性的空间分布模型，描述了农村景观中氮的转移和转化。在代表5年的集约型农场管理并覆盖3 km ²的理论景观上进行了模拟 。应用聚类分析总结了模型输出整体上的敏感性分析结果。我们采用的方法学对具有多个时空输入和输出变量的模型的敏感性分析很有用，并且可以移植到NitroScape之外的其他模型中。