Environmental Systems Analysis with MATLAB®

Abstract

This book is about developing dynamical models of environmental processes, using a wide variety of mathematical methods. The first four chapters introduce the analytical tools for investigating environmental models and data. The emphasis is evenly balanced between the mechanistic and the data-driven approaches, assessing the merits and liabilities of both. Theory is introduced in its most accessible form and is applied to test cases based on first-hand data and experiences. While Chapters 1 and 2 illustrate with the basic concepts of modelling and identification, Chapter 3 deals with data processing, rarely considered in the environmental analysis, by introducing numerical techniques to improve the quality of the data and to extract the information they carry, in the context of model building and verification. Chapter 4 introduces the basic concepts of fuzzy logic and applies them to the modelling of environmental systems. Chapters 5 through 7 apply these methodologies to specific aspects of environmental modelling: population dynamics, flow systems, and environmental microbiology. The last chapter (Chapter 8) combines the notions of the previous chapters into the analysis of several aquatic ecosystems’ case studies.