Spatial Modelling of the Terrestrial Environment (Kelly/Spatial Modelling of the Terrestrial Environment) || Spatial Modelling of the Terrestrial Environment: Outlook

✍ Scribed by Kelly, Richard E.J.; Drake, Nicholas A.; Barr, Stuart L.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 49 KB
• Edition: 1
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 0470843489
• DOI: 10.1002/0470094001.ch13

✦ Synopsis

Spatial modelling of the terrestrial environment encompasses a wide variety of research activities in the Earth and environmental sciences. In this volume we have collected examples from a small subset of those activities which serve to illustrate some important challenges that modellers currently face. Some of these issues are terrestrial-specific and apply mostly to land-based activities while other issues are more generally applicable. However, the issues are not merely abstract in importance since they often have a direct influence on policy or social activity. For example, in the chapter by Devereux et al. (Chapter 11) there is a clear demonstration of how models can be used in environmental planning applications. They conclude: "(a GIS) can provide the basis for testing and learning about the likely outcomes of policy measures before they are implemented and before their undesirable effects become too difficult to reverse". This is a very attractive feature for policy makers who are keenly aware of the consequences of policy decisions that are founded on a poor understanding of complex issues. It also reflects the fact that we are now capable of sophisticated computer simulations of the kind described by and referred to in Chapter 1.