Connectivity, Complexity, and Catastrophe in Large-Scale Systems

This book represents an approach to large-scale system modeling that is a challenging synthesis for the systems analyst, the operations research worker, the system theorist, the policy analyst, and the student of social systems. After pointing out that the mathematical form of a system description dictates the types of questions that can be asked and answered by the model, the author declares that "there is no such thing as a model system: there are many models, each with its own characteristic mathematical features and each capable of addressing a certain subset of important questions about the system and its operation". The book supports this point with examples from a wide spectrum of contexts (such as physics, economic activity, water-resource management, ecology, transportation, and physiology) viewed from the points of view of various models and theories (such as general system theory, control theory, graph theory, linear and nonlinear system theory, and catastrophy theory). Against this broad background, the book then considers in depth the relations to large-scale systems of the theories of connectivity, complexity, stability, catastrophy, and resilience.