Author Description

In all branches of the environmental sciences there is a discernible trend towards attempting to model natural systems and predict their behavior, rather than passive observation. Advancing scientific knowledge has made the design of models feasible, while development in computer technology have made their implementation practicable. This book provides a fascinating cross-section of the state-of-the-art in computer modelling spanning the environmental sciences. Many of the topics are relevant to matters of topical public concern: global atmospheric effects and world climate, oceanographic phenomena and coastal flooding, pollution dispersal and acid rain, earthquake studies, and more. The scale ranges from models placing heavy demands on advanced supercomputers to more modest developments on personal computers. Environmental scientists, and all those using mathematical and computational models -- in both science and industry -- will find this work a source of valuable information.