ENV310H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Compost, Coevolution, Chaos Theory
Document Summary
Chaos theory: the study of nonlinear behaviour in dynamic systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions: unpredictability, uncertainty, sudden transitions, tipping points, leverage points, risk of cascading failures. Vulnerability: inverse of adaptive capacity or resilience, lack of ability to respond to and recover from perturbations or environmental changes, lack of ability to maintain equilibrium, vulnerability can be increased by network interdependencies, risk of cascading failures. The ecological domain: practices and meanings that occur across the intersection between social and natural realms, focusing on human engagement with and within nature, and the built environment: perspectives and aspects: 1. materials and energy: availability and abundance, soil and fertility, minerals and metals, electricity and gas, petroleum and biofuels, renewables and recyclables, monitoring and reflection. Vitality and viability: water quality and potability, air quality and respiration, climate and temperature, greenhouse gases and carbon, adaptation and mitigation processes, monitoring and reflection.
