The book contains a large number of examples, interspersed throughout the text, with an introductory and then more thoroughly developed case study at the beginning and end of every chapter, with the end of chapter studies designed to illustrate and apply the concepts of the chapter to a problem of practical interest:
Case
Study
2:
Global
Warming
and
Climate
Change
Case
Study
3:
Nutrient
Flows,
Irrigation,
and
Desertification
Case
Study
4:
Water
Levels
of
the
Oceans
and
Great
Lakes
Case
Study
5:
System
Decoupling
Case
Study
6:
Climate
and
Hysteresis
Case
Study
7:
Geysers,
Earthquakes,
and
Limit
Cycles
Case
Study
8:
Global
Circulation
Models
Case
Study
9:
Power
Laws
in
Social
Systems
Case
Study
10:
Complex
Systems
in
Nature
Case
Study
11A:
Sensing
—
Synthetic
Aperture
Radar
Case
Study
11B:
Inversion
—
Atmospheric
Temperature
Case
Study
12:
Satellite
Remote
Sensing
of
the
Ocean
The goal of the text is to take concepts of nonlinear dynamics, complex systems, power-law distributions, and system sensing beyond their mathematical definition, and to try to develop some degree of insight and intuition. The large number of examples in the text are designed as asides, to numerically explore individual topics. As a sample, links are provided to two examples:
Example
3.1:
Three
systems
and
their
envelopes
Example
3.2:
Complete
Accounting
Example
3.3:
Entropy
Reduction
Example
3.4:
Society,
Civilization,
and
Complexity
Example
3.5:
Energy
Returned
on
Energy
Invested
(EROEI)
Example
3.6:
Maximum
Power
Principle
Example
3.7:
Global
Flows
I
Example
3.8:
Systems
and
Energy
Transitions
Example
4.1:
System
Examples
Example
4.2:
Correlation
Lag
—
Mechanical
System
Example
4.3:
Correlation
Lag
—
Thermal
System
Example
4.4:
Model
and
Residual
Stationarity
Example
5.1:
The
Exponential
Function
Example
5.2:
Coupled
Systems
Example
5.3:
Resilience
I
—
Linear
Systems
Example
6.1:
Population
Growth
Example
6.2:
Bead
on
a
Hoop
Example
6.3:
System
Perturbations
Example
6.4:
Deliberate
Hystereses
Example
6.5:
Playing
with
Blocks
Example
6.6:
Hysteresis
in
Freshwater
Lakes
Example
7.1:
Nonlinear
Competing
Dynamics
Example
7.2:
Basins
for
Root
Finding
Example
7.3:
Resilience
II
—
Nonlinear
Systems
Example
7.4:
Dynamics
of
Linear
Circuits
Example
7.5:
Creating
and
Finding
a
Limit
Cycle
Example
7.6:
Tapping,
Banging,
Ringing,
and
Whistling
must
all
be
Nonlinear
Example
7.7:
An
Alarm
Bell
as
Limit
Cycle
Example
7.8:
Dynamics
of
Nonlinear
Circuits
Example
7.9:
Limit
Cycles
in
Economics
Example
7.10:
Low
Hanging
Fruit
and
System
Limits
Example
7.11:
The
Tragedy
of
the
Commons
Example
7.12:
Societal
Dynamics
Example
8.1:
Spatial
Discretization
Example
8.2:
The
Spatial
Dynamics
of
Human
Impact
Example
8.3:
Two-Box
Lumped-Parameter
Model
Example
8.4:
Global
Flows
II
Example
8.5:
Spatial
Nonlinear
Systems
and
Traffic
Jams
Example
9.1:
Memory
and
Exponentials
Example
9.2:
Power
Laws
in
Finance
Example
9.3:
Power
Laws
in
Weather
Example
9.4:
Power
Laws
and
Fraud
Statistics
Example
9.5:
Power
Laws
and
Cities
Example
9.6:
Power
Laws
and
Discount
Functions
Example
10.1:
Even
Chocolate
is
Nonlinear!
Example
10.2:
Ferromagnetic
Phase
Change
Example
10.3:
Critical
Behaviour
in
Connected
Graphs
Example
10.4:
Spatial
SOC
—
Earthquakes
Example
10.5:
Slime
Mould
Emergence
Example
10.6:
Resilience
III
—
Complex
Systems
Example
11.1:
Indirect
Inference
Example
11.2:
Can
a
Space
Telescope
Read
a
Newspaper?
Example
11.3:
Measurements
and
Constraints