A systematic approach to analyzing environmental issues involving complex systems (a web-based course)
Journal Title: Ecocycles - Year 2015, Vol 1, Issue 2
Abstract
The course “Conceptual Modeling for Decision Support” (Univ. Gothenburg, Sweden) is a web-based course, given the first time in October 2015. This introduction and other supporting documents on the website intend to provide a background for independent work with the five tutorials that comprise the core of this course. The openly accessible website will allow study at any time, but can ideally be combined with the blended-learning course in “Environmental Geology” or with project work at various institutes in the relevant cooperation networks. The introduction below develops both the philosophical and the practical framework for modeling environmental systems. Differences in scale, time and the complexity are necessary to consider when evaluating the parameters within the system, but modeling is also an attempt to simplify in order to understand the net effects of the combined components. Multi-criteria evaluation allows predictive modelling by combining the typically qualitative and quantitative information from multidisciplinary sources. The course structure and tutorials are briefly presented.
Authors and Affiliations
Rodney Stevens, Marston Johnson
Increased glutathione S-transferase activity in 35S(CaMV)-Zmgstf4 transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana
Clones of 35S-Zmgstf4 transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana expressing the glutathione S-transferase F4 gene of Zea mays, were tested for stress-inductive GST (glutathione S-transferase) activity following treatments with the...
Development of new economies by merging heritage and entrepreneurship
‘Heritage’ could be the driving force in developing new economies in geographic areas with unstable growth. The establishment of industrial remains as heritage during the 1980s and 90s describes a development of heritage...
Nutrient supply of plants in aquaponic systems
In this preliminary article we present data on plant nutrient concentrations in aquaponic systems, and compare them to nutrient concentrations in “standard” hydroponic solutions. Our data shows that the nutrient concentr...
Recent advances and future trends in zebrafish bioassays for aquatic ecotoxicology
Zebrafish (Danio rerio), a cyprinid teleost, has become an ideal model species for aquatic ecotoxicology due to the broad spectra of methodologies that have been developed since the 1980s. The zebrafish has many advantag...
Rising cities: continuity, innovation and deliberation of Vauban District, Freiburg, Germany
The future of the biosphere, indeed of humanity, will be determined in the cities of the 21st century. Urban centres are where the battle for sustainable development will be won or lost, and we find today an increasing n...