Over the past two decades, multi-component dryland vegetation models have been successful in qualitatively reproducing the spatial vegetation patterns widely observed in nature. In the two-component (water, vegetation) Klausmeier model, water flow from bare to vegetated areas drives pattern formation. The more elaborate Rietkerk and Gilad three-component models make a distinction between soil and surface water. In this article the three models are approximated from within a unifying framework, with a focus on processes that drive pattern formation, in order to promote the understanding of similarities and differences between these models. Reduction from a model with a separate soil and surface water component, to a model with a single water component, preserves Turing instability in all but one of the cases studied.

在过去的二十年中，多组分旱地植被模型已经成功地定性地再现了自然界广泛观察到的空间植被格局。在两部分（水，植被）Klausmeier模型中，从裸露区到植被区的水流驱动格局形成。Rietkerk和Gilad的三要素模型更加精细，区分了土壤和地表水。在本文中，这三个模型是从一个统一的框架中近似得出的，重点是驱动模式形成的过程，以促进对这些模型之间相似性和差异的理解。从具有单独的土壤和地表水成分的模型还原为具有单个水成分的模型，可以保留图灵不稳定性，但其中一种情况除外。