BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

ENVIRONMENT: Heterogeneity in space and, for time 1)

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In theory, an environment can be heterogeneous, i.e. patchy in space, but constant in time… or, conversely, be uniform in space, in some specific place, but heterogeneous in time… and, of course, more or less heterogeneous both in space and time. (R. LEVINS, 1961, p.34).

S.R. REICE writes: "The environmental patchiness is based on physical and chemical gradients that are ubiquitous" (1994, p.427).

This ecological view can be applied as well to economic environments, for example.

Stability in time may allow for the survival of even quite narrowly adapted systems, while on the contrary the opposite demands for a great adaptive variety.

Growing exigences of a population on an environment may transform it in time, i.e. render it heterogeneous. In such cases, the population is creating hazards for itself.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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