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12 - Developing Simple Environmental Models

from Chapter 12

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2021

Tara Ivanochko
Tara Ivanochko
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
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Summary

Models are simplified representations of reality. We use models in many different ways, for many different purposes: physical models are used to study urban planning, vehicle impacts, new inventions, and molecular structures; rats are used as model organisms to test new pharmaceuticals for side effects; conceptual models are used to simplify and understand concepts, ideas, and relationships; mathematical models are used to understand, quantify, and predict the behaviour of the natural world. All models are intended to capture some key feature of reality (shape, behaviour, relationships, etc.); the specific focus of a model will depend on the purpose for which the model is intended to be used.

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Think, Do, and Communicate Environmental Science , pp. 171 - 196
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Ciais, P., Sabine, C., Bala, G. et al. (2013). Carbon and Other Biogeochemical Cycles. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Stocker, T. F., Qin, D., Plattner, G.-K. et al. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, and New York.Google Scholar
Keeling, C. D., Piper, S. C., Bacastow, R. B. et al. (2001). Exchanges of atmospheric CO2 and 13CO2 with the terrestrial biosphere and oceans from 1978 to 2000. I. Global aspects, SIO Reference Series, No. 01-06, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, CA, 88pp.Google Scholar
US Department of Energy, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre. (2018). http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/trends/emis/meth_reg.html. Last accessed September 4, 2018.Google Scholar

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