Energetics and systems

To those wrestling with environmental problems and those involved with the holistic approaches of general-systems research, energy must be approached from a variety of viewpoints, some with immediate pragmatic connotations, some with long-term scientific and philosophical implications. During April 1981, there were held in Louisville, Kentucky under the auspices of the Systems Science Institute of the University of Louisville, meetings of the International Society for Ecological Modelling and the Society for General Systems Research, Southeast Region. On Earth Day, April 22, a joint symposium of the two societies was held under the title, Energetics and Systems. A number of the foremost researchers in this broad field were involved in that symposium, and the material of this volume is based on those presentations. The first chapter was devoted to introduction and overview; a separate abstract was prepared for each of the other 7 chapters.