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System Identification, Environmental Modelling, and Control System Design pp 533–555Cite as

Chaos Theory for Modeling Environmental Systems: Philosophy and Pragmatism

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Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed a significant momentum in chaos theory applications to environmental systems. The outcomes are certainly encouraging, especially considering the still fairly exploratory stage of the theory in the field. Nevertheless, there have also been persistent skepticisms and criticisms on these studies, motivated by the potential limitations in chaos identification methods. The goal of this chapter is to offer a balanced perspective of chaos studies in environmental systems: between the philosophy of chaos theory and the down-to-earth pragmatism needed in its applications. After a presentation of the development of chaos theory, some basic identification methods are described and their reliability for determining system properties demonstrated. A brief review of chaos theory studies in environmental systems as well as the progress and pitfalls is then made. Analysis of four river flow series presents support to the contention that environmental systems are neither deterministic nor stochastic, but a combination of the two, and that chaos theory can offer a middle-ground approach to our extreme deterministic and stochastic views.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported in part by the Korean Research Foundation funded by the Korean Government (MEST) (KRF-2009-D0010).

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  1. The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Bellie Sivakumar

  2. University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Bellie Sivakumar

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Correspondence to Bellie Sivakumar .

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    Liuping Wang

  2. Centre de Recherche en, Automatique de Nancy, Université Nancy I, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy CX, France

    Hugues Garnier

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Sivakumar, B. (2012). Chaos Theory for Modeling Environmental Systems: Philosophy and Pragmatism. In: Wang, L., Garnier, H. (eds) System Identification, Environmental Modelling, and Control System Design. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-974-1_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-974-1_26

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