One of the specificities of hi-sAFe is that it can simulate the effect of different planting patterns in different pedo-climatic conditions,  representing precisely the growth of roots, and the plasticity of tree root architecture taking into account crop competition, but also cropping practices such as root pruning.

Tree fine root growth is represented by a voxelar automaton, that is is a sort of « contamination » by fine roots from one voxel to the other, with more fine roots created were more water can be extracted, taking into account the cost of C for coarse roots that are needed to support these fine roots.

Tree coarse roots are represented in a spatially explicit way, with two characteristics: the topology of the root system and the diameter of the coarse root.

The other specificity of root representation in Hi-sAFe is that it represents explicitely the carbon cycle: root growth is controlled by the amount of C incorporated by photosynthesis, and the carbon of dead roots is released in the soil.