BELATED BLOG INTRODUCTION

Who cares about models?

Michael Mann does. "Any conclusion about [global warming] causality required the use of climate models to estimate the relative contributions of the various factors, including human increases in greenhouse gas concentrations..." In the same interview about his book The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, he mentions models 8 times.

Deniers care too. The Heartland Institute's NIPCC website devotes whole sections discussing the limitations and misapplications of climate models (no link provided; I'm not advertising them).

Since so much depends on, and is misunderstood about, models in environmental science, from global and regional climate change; to hydrology, coastal management and energy infrastructure, this blog takes a critical look at the underpinnings of modelling and its applications to environmental phenomena.

My "research reading" posts look in-depth at some landmark, and some current, papers on the general process of modelling. This includes topics such as model calibration and model simplification. Within each post I also look at some papers applying relevant methods in an environmental science context.

My "modelling approaches" posts take the knowledge from the "research reading" papers and apply them to an environmental model; for example, a groundwater recharge model. I also mention other papers with supporting material or comparative approaches.

I'm hoping to synthesize these topics as the blog progresses. For example, I'm currently reading up on some models created in STELLA and comparing the different approaches taken, bearing in mind the critiques from the "research reading" papers.

Finally, anything without those headers is usually offbeat, humorously intended, provocative or Minecraft worshipping.