A wide variety of models are used for process understanding, scenario analyses, transfer to other time periods and areas and to derive further environmental information from measurements. In the "Forest Spectrum" project, for example, a model chain is used to investigate what characteristics the forests of the future could have under the influence of climate change and how they will develop. Within the "WinMol" project, growth models are used to simulate the development of forest stands and then a storm damage model is used to determine storm vulnerability. In the joint project "TroWak", a water balance model is used to model critical drought stress situations in German forests.