EARTH-SURFACE SYSTEM

John A. Matthews

doi:10.4135/9781446247501

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EARTH-SURFACE SYSTEM

Edited by:
John A. Matthews
In:Encyclopedia of Environmental Change
Chapter DOI:https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446247501.n1171
Subject:Environmental Sciences (general), Environmental Technology, Policy & Management

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A system at and near the surface of the Earth, such as the global hydrological cycle, a drainage basin or an ecosystem. An Earth-surface systems approach involves investigating the interactions between the component parts and the behaviour of the system as a whole rather than describing, classifying and analysing the individual elements (reductionism). Earth-surface systems are inherently complex and orderly but may be unstable and chaotic, exhibit self-organisation and behave, at least in part, as non-linear dynamical systems.

[See alsochaos theory, geomorphology]

John A.MatthewsSwansea University

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446247501.n1171

10.4135/9781446247501.n1171

MurrayAB, LazarusE, AshtonA et al. (2009) Geomorphology, complexity, and the emerging science of the Earth’s surface. Geomorphology103: 496–505.

National Research Council (2010) Landscapes on the edge: New horizons for research on Earth’s surface. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

PhillipsJD (1999) Earth surface systems: complexity, order and scale. Oxford: Blackwell.

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