NDLI: From modelling to experiment

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From modelling to experiment

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Guermond, Yves Delahaye, Daniel Dubos Paillard, Edwige Langlois, Patrice
Copyright Year	2004
Abstract	Mathematical models applied to urban and regional planning have been widely developed during the sixties. Since that time the scientific and technologic developments have deeply transformed the field of spatial modelling. There has been a reaction against the idea that reality could be reduced to deterministic models. The paradigms of complexity, chaos, self-organisation, fractal geometry have made obvious the unpredictability of complex socio-economic systems. At the same time the progress of computation has led to the substitution of simulation methods to analytic solutions of mathematical models. In such a context, models are loosing in generality and reproducibility what they earn in adaptation to empirical situations. An important challenge is also to confirm the pertinence and specificity of the geographical approach. In that respect the spatial analysis programs must prove the evidence of a common methodology dealing either with physical or human and economic domain. We are working, for instance, on cellular automata programs applied to the historical evolution of an urban space and also to the run-off process in an elementary basin. The spatial structure of the models may be slightly different: rectangular or hexagonal tessellations in the “Human Geography” program, TIN structure, closer to the physical reality, in the other. The relations between the cells may also differ: they are often defined by a distance matrix for the socio-economic models, but a contiguity matrix is of course needed for the streaming process. But, beyond these technical differences, it appears that the geographical programs are developed on a macro-level, that is on aggregate statistical units. The elementary particle is always (or should be for a geographer...) a material, spatial unit, unlike the drop of water of the hydrologists, or the individual “agents” of the sociologists' multi-agents systems. The difference between the micro and macro level is not a question of scale, but a difference of logic. The simulation approach has a requisite, which is a need of systematic validation by a permanent comparison with the actual situation, but the objective is not prediction. The scientific concern is, before all, a precise understanding of the past and recent evolutions, more than a forecasting, which escapes to the specific field of scientific research. What is scientific is what can be measured. The possible prediction may rely on the scientific research, but belongs strictly to the domain of intellectual and personal thinking.
Starting Page	171
Ending Page	176
Page Count	6
File Format	PDF
ISSN	03432521
Journal	GeoJournal
Volume Number	59
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	15729893
Language	English
Publisher	Kluwer Academic Publishers
Publisher Date	2004-01-01
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Hydrogeology Geography (general) Ecology Environmental Management Methodology of the Social Sciences
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Geography, Planning and Development

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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