All manner of models are used to describe, simulate, extrapolate, and ultimately understand the function of
dynamic systems. These sorts of models are usually based upon a mathematical foundation that can be difficult to
manipulate especially for students. Modeling for All Scales uses object-oriented programming to erect and evaluate
the efficacy of models of small, intermediate and large scale systems. Such models allow users to employ intuitively
based symbols and a systems ecology approach. The authors have been leaders in the systems ecology community and
have originated much of the scientific vocabulary of the field. After introducing modeling and its benefits, there
is a series of chapters detailing the more particular elements of successful simulation. There follows another
series of chapters, each devoted to models of different sorts of systems. Small scale models of growth, competition,
and evolution give way, successively, to larger and larger scale models such as international trade and the global
geobiosphere. Anyone interested in an easy to use approach to modeling complex systems authored by perhaps the
most original systems ecologists of the century will want this book.
Key Features:
* The book makes it possible to teach modeling and simulation without much prior knowledge of mathematics
* Reasons for modeling and simulation are discussed
* The book makes modeling and simulation fun by keeping focused on simplified overview minimodels that have important
principles to science and society
* The steps in successive chapters are arranged so that readers can teach themselves modeling, simulation, and
the programming necessary to simulate the systems they diagram