Overview
- Offers an interdisciplinary approach, aimed at connecting the dots between the underlying physics/mathematics and macroscopic world-scale phenomena
- Focuses on complex systems, with chapters dedicated to interacting, large scale, nonlinear and non-Gaussian systems
- Provides ecologically and socially motivated case studies to offer substantial real-world context and motivation to the technical contents
- Enriched with dozens of examples, boxed inserts and formulas, as well as over 300 illustrations
- Over 100 end-of-chapter problems, most with solutions, spanning the full range of conceptual, analytical, computational, reading/essay and policy-related questions
- Self-contained, with appendices giving an overview of the needed mathematical and conceptual background
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Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Complex Systems lie at the heart of a variety of large-scale phenomena of great significance - global warming, ice ages, water, poverty, pandemics - and this text uses these case studies as motivations and contexts to explore complex systems and related topics of nonlinear dynamics and power-law statistics. Although detailed mathematical descriptions of these topics can be challenging, the consequences of a system being nonlinear, power-law, or complex are in fact quite accessible. This book blends a tutorial approach to the mathematical aspects of complex systems together with a complementary narrative on the global/ecological/societal implications of such systems.
Nearly all engineering undergraduate courses focus on mathematics and systems which are small scale, linear, and Gaussian. Unfortunately there is not a single large-scale ecological or social phenomenon that is scalar, linear, and Gaussian. This book offers insights to better understand the large-scale problems facing the world and to realize that these cannot be solved by a single, narrow academic field or perspective. Instead, the book seeks to emphasize understanding, concepts, and ideas, in a way that is mathematically rigorous, so that the concepts do not feel vague, but not so technical that the mathematics get in the way. The book is intended for students in technical domains such as engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics, and environmental studies.
This second edition adds nine new examples, over 30 additional problems, 50 additional figures, and three new chapters offering a detailed study of system decoupling, extensive solutions to chapter problems, and a timely discussion on the complex systems challenges associated with COVID-19 and pandemics in general.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Paul Fieguth is a professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. He has longstanding research interests in statistical signal and image processing, hierarchical algorithms, machine learning, and the interdisciplinary applications of such methods, particularly to problems in medical imaging, remote sensing, and scientific imaging. With Springer he has published two successful books: Statistical Image Processing and Multidimensional Modeling (2011) and An Introduction to Complex Systems (2017, 1st edition).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: An Introduction to Complex Systems
Book Subtitle: Society, Ecology, and Nonlinear Dynamics
Authors: Paul Fieguth
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63168-0
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-63167-3Published: 04 September 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-63168-0Published: 03 September 2021
Edition Number: 2
Number of Pages: XIV, 463
Number of Illustrations: 19 b/w illustrations, 247 illustrations in colour
Topics: Complex Systems, Earth System Sciences, Environmental Physics