Extreme Environmental Events: Complexity in Forecasting and Early Warning

“Forecasting and early warning of natural hazards has been in the news over the last several years, particularly in Japan (earthquake and tsunami early warning and forecasting after the March 2011 magnitude 9 Eastern Japan earthquake), Chile (tsunami warning after the February 2010 magnitude 8.8 earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Chile) and the United States (after a series of tornadoes in the Central and eastern United States and the startup of the development of a earthquake early warning system for California, Oregon and Washington). The two volume set Extreme Environmental Events and Complexity in Forecasting and Early Warning Selected Entries from the Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science is a professional level reference that provides a basic background on climate change, earthquake forecasting and early warning, tsunami forecasting and warning and volcanic hazard forecasting and warning. It also contains a number of papers on highly technical issues such as the location and modeling of earthquakes and tsunamis and the modeling of volcanic tremors. The set covers topics from economic impact of climate change to use of earthquake early warning in Italy and Japan. Each paper in the set contains a glossary that allows the reader to easily follow what the authors are trying to convey without getting distracted by terms that may have different meanings or uses in different disciplines.

“I found that the set was a great introduction to the subject matter but was somewhat unbalanced in the selection of papers. I did not find any papers on the economic, agricultural or human health impacts of volcanic eruptions, tsunamis or earthquakes. A few papers covering such topics like what was covered for climate change would have been most welcome. Overall, the setExtreme Environmental Events and Complexity in Forecasting and Early Warning Selected Entries from the Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science would be a welcome addition to any university library.”– Robert Anderson, Alfred E. Alquist Seismic Safety Commission, Sacramento, CA, USA, May 2012

Extreme Environmental Events is an authoritative single source for understanding and applying the basic tenets of complexity and systems theory, as well as the tools and measures for analyzing complex systems, to the prediction, monitoring, and evaluation of major natural phenomena affecting life on earth. These phenomena are often highly destructive, and include earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, climate change,, and weather. Early warning, damage, and the immediate response of human populations to these phenomena are also covered from the point of view of complexity and nonlinear systems. In 61 authoritative, state-of-the art articles, world experts in each field apply such tools and concepts as fractals, cellular automata, solitons game theory, network theory, and statistical physics to an understanding of these complex geophysical phenomena.