Natural Complexes as Self-Regulating Information Systems

AbstractNatural complexes such as landscapes and other physical-geographic units may be viewed as information systems, and therefore the concepts and methods of cybernetics may be applied to the study of such complexes. Geographers are already using methods that are specific to cybernetics, such as the concept of the “black box.” Feedback plays a very special role in natural complexes and accounts for the self-regulating character of such systems. Negative feedback tends to enhance stability; positive feedback leads to progressively growing, avalanche-like processes. Admittedly the relationships within natural complexes arise spontaneously and without specific aim, but this should not be regarded as a ground for excluding such systems from the province of application of cybernetic methods.