Spatially explicit landscape models are the models that spatially explicitly simulate the ecological processes at landscape scale on heterogeneous landscape. LANDIS is a spatially explicit landscape model of forest landscape disturbance, succession and management. By recording the absence/presence of species in terms of 10-yr age cohorts at site level, the semi-quantitative description of fire and windthrow disturbances, and the representation of age-cohorts by bit-wise array, it is possible for LANDIS to simulate the ecological processes at species, site and landscape level. We addressed in detail the approaches used in simulating seed dispersal, disturbances of fire and windthrow, and harvesting. The deficiencies of the model were also discussed to provide feedback for model development.