Modelling and Model Building - Environmental Modelling: Finding Simplicity in Complexity - page 6

2

Modelling and Model Building

Mark Mulligan 1 and John Wainwright 2
1 Department of Geography, King's College London, UK
2 Department of Geography, Durham University, UK

Modelling is like sin. Once you begin with one form of it you are pushed to others. In fact, as with sin, once
you begin with one form you ought to consider other forms But unlike sin - or at any rate unlike sin as a

moral purist conceives of it - modelling is the best reaction to the situation in which we find ourselves.
Given the meagreness of our intelligence in comparison with the complexity and subtlety of nature, if we
want to say things which are true, as well as things which are useful and things which are testable, then we
had better relate our bids for truth, application and testability in some fairly sophisticated ways. This is what
modelling does.

...

(Morton and Su arez, 'Kinds of models', 2001)

Research is traditionally carried out through the
accumulation of observations of systems and system
behaviour under 'natural' circumstances and during
experimental manipulation. These observations provide
the evidence upon which hypotheses can be generated
about the structure and operation (function) of the
systems. These hypotheses can be tested against new
observations and, where they prove to be reliable
descriptors of the system or system behaviour, then they
may eventually gain recognition as proven theory or
general law as far as that is possible.
The

2.1 The role of modelling in
environmental research

2.1.1 Thenatureof research

Research is a means of improvement through understand-
ing. This improvement may be personal but it may also
be tied to development. We may hope to improve human
health and wellbeing through research into diseases such
as cancer and heart disease. We may wish to improve the
design of bridges or aircraft through research in materials
science, which provides lighter, stronger, longer lasting or
cheaper (in terms of building and maintenance) bridge
structures. We may wish to produce more or better crops
with less adverse impact on the environment through
research in biotechnology. In all of these cases research
provides, in the first instance, better understanding of how
things are and how they work, which can then contribute
to the improvement or optimization of these systems
through the development of new techniques, processes,
materials and protocols.

conditions, which are required to facilitate

research, include:
(a) a means of observation and comparative observation
(measurement);
(b) a means of controlling or forcing aspects of the system
(experimentation);
(c) an understanding of previous research and the state
of knowledge (context); and
(d) a means of cross-referencing and connecting threads
of (a), (b) and (c) (imagination).