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Science 2 April 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5411, pp. 102 - 104
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5411.102
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Complexity in Natural Landform Patterns

B. T. Werner

Patterns in nature, such as meandering rivers and sand dunes, display complex behavior seemingly at odds with their simplicity of form. Existing approaches to modeling natural landform patterns, reductionism and universality, are incompatible with the nonlinear, open nature of natural systems. An alternative modeling methodology based on the tendency of natural systems to self-organize in temporal hierarchies is described.

Complex Systems Laboratory, Cecil and Ida Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0225, USA. E-mail: bwerner{at}ucsd.edu

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