Environmental Systems Analysis with MATLAB®

Stefano Marsili-Libelli

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781315360065
• Topic: Mathematics
• Subtopic: Probability & Statistics
• Index: Mathematics

Explore the inner workings of environmental processes using a mathematical approach. Environmental Systems Analysis with MATLAB® combines environmental science concepts and system theory with numerical techniques to provide a better understanding of how our environment works. The book focuses on building mathematical models of environmental systems, and using these models to analyze their behaviors. Designed with the environmental professional in mind, it offers a practical introduction to developing the skills required for managing environmental modeling and data handling.

The book follows a logical sequence from the basic steps of model building and data analysis to implementing these concepts into working computer codes, and then on to assessing their results. It describes data processing (rarely considered in environmental analysis); outlines the tools needed to successfully analyze data and develop models, and moves on to real-world problems. The author illustrates in the first four chapters the methodological aspects of environmental systems analysis, and in subsequent chapters applies them to specific environmental concerns.

The accompanying software bundle is freely downloadable from the book web site. It follows the chapters sequence and provides a hands-on experience, allowing the reader to reproduce the figures in the text and experiment by varying the problem setting. A basic MATLAB literacy is required to get the most out of the software.

Ideal for coursework and self-study, this offering:

• Deals with the basic concepts of environmental modeling and identification, both from the mechanistic and the data-driven viewpoint
• Provides a unifying methodological approach to deal with specific aspects of environmental modeling: population dynamics, flow systems, and environmental microbiology
• Assesses the similarities and the differences of microbial processes in natural and man-made environments
• Analyzes several aquatic ecosystems' case studies
• Presents an application of an extended Streeter & Phelps (S&P) model
• Describes an ecological method to estimate the bioavailable nutrients in natural waters
• Considers a lagoon ecosystem from several viewpoints, including modeling and management, and more

1	Introduction

I became more and more convinced that even Nature could be understood as a relatively simple mathematical structure, but how can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?

Albert Einstein

This book is about building mathematical models of environmental systems, and using these models to analyse their behaviours. Models are mind representations of reality. They are at the basis of modern science, pioneered by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. Environmental models, no matter how elaborate, have the peculiarity of being simplified representations of Nature’s complexity. Nevertheless, they helped scientists make inroads into understanding the functioning of the environment in which we are living. To help us in this endeavour, computers make our mind creations come alive, so that we can explore a whole paradigm of what–if scenarios, and check the correctness or fallacy of our assumptions.

1.1 ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS MODELLING, THE BASIC CONCEPTS

Environmental models are abstract representations of reality that can be used to improve our understanding of the natural systems or to assist in taking management decisions. The task of the modeller is to translate non-numerical concepts and facts into mathematical equations that describe the system evolution in quantitative terms, as illustrated in Figure 1.1. The first pioneering attempts at turning ecological principles into mathematical laws focused on population dynamics (Gause, 1934; Morris and Miller, 1954; Leslie, 1957; May, 1974, 1976a; Maynard Smith, 1974). Since then mathematical modelling of ecosystems has won a growing acceptance in the field of ecology and is now an integral part of it (May, 1976b; Pielou, 1977; Casti, 1979; Begon and Mortimer, 1986; Hallam and Levin, 1986; Levin et al., 1989; Agren and Bosatta, 1996; Ricklefs and Miller, 1999; Clark and Mangel, 2000; Gotelli, 2001; Odum and Barrett, 2004; Rockwood, 2006; Pastor, 2008; Krebs, 2009; Legendre and Legendre, 2012; Mittelbach, 2012; Vandermeer and Goldberg, 2013).

Given the holistic nature of ecology, when we consider an ecosystem, we inevitably draw a line between the part of the ecosystem we want to study and what we want (or have) to leave out, thus making a somewhat arbitrary division between the inside and the outside of the subject of our study. No matter how we draw this boundary, however, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Author
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Identification of Environmental Models
• Chapter 3 Analysis of Environmental Time Series
• Chapter 4 Fuzzy Modelling of Environmental Systems
• Chapter 5 Population Dynamics Modelling
• Chapter 6 Flow Reactor Modelling
• Chapter 7 Microbial Kinetics Modelling
• Chapter 8 Analysis of Aquatic Ecosystems
• References
• Index