Complexity in Natural Landform Patterns

Patterns in nature, such as meandering rivers and sand dunes, display complex behavior seemingly at odds with their simplicity of form. Existing approaches to modeling natural landform patterns, reductionism and universality, are incompatible with the nonlinear, open nature of natural systems. An al...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 284; no. 5411; pp. 102 - 104
Main Author Werner, B. T.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Society for the Advancement of Science 02.04.1999
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Subjects
Beaches
Bedforms
Chaos theory
Chaotic systems
Complex systems
Degrees of freedom
Freshwater
Landforms
Marine
Modeling
Multilevel models
Sand
Sand dunes
Shorelines
Viewpoints
Waves
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Summary:Patterns in nature, such as meandering rivers and sand dunes, display complex behavior seemingly at odds with their simplicity of form. Existing approaches to modeling natural landform patterns, reductionism and universality, are incompatible with the nonlinear, open nature of natural systems. An alternative modeling methodology based on the tendency of natural systems to self-organize in temporal hierarchies is described.
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ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.284.5411.102