ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book builds mathematical models of environmental systems, and analyses their behaviours by using these models. Models are mind representations of reality. They are at the basis of modern science, pioneered by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. The book provides a basic MATLAB tutorial. It introduces the concept of approximate reasoning into the model, which is composed of a collection of logical rules. The book deals with model identification. The basic purpose of modelling is the understanding of the system working and the prediction of its future evolution. Before a reliable forecast can be produced, though, the model should be calibrated by comparing the actual and simulated outputs when the model is driven by the same experimental inputs that caused the observed output.
