Divergence, Convergence, and Self-Organization in Landscapes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8376959 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan D Phillips (0000-0003-0283-6023, Mitchell Institute, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 466-488 |
| Publication date | 1999-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/0004-5608.00158 |
| OpenAlex | W1999013482 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 9 |
Many theories, old and new, of landscape and earth-surface system development involve concepts of self-organization. There are at least eleven distinct definitions of self-organization in the literature that are relevant to landscapes. Some have profoundly different implications with respect to the nature and trajectories of landscape evolution and earth-surface system behavior, including whether evolution is convergent or divergent, whether entropy or energy dissipation is maximized or minimized, the role of chaos, and the mechanisms by which self-organized patterns are generated. Despite these differences, most self-organization concepts can be broadly aggregated into two categories: those concerned with the evolution of order and regularity in the aggregate or ensemble properties of the landscape, and those concerned with the differentiation of landscapes into more diverse spatial units. This paper presents a theory of spatially divergent self-organization related to the latter, showing that autogenic differentiation is directly linked to dynamical instability and chaos. The determination of the self-organization properties of a landscape should be a starting point rather than a goal of geographic explanation. The extent to which field-testable hypotheses are generated, or explanations provided based on process mechanics or landscape history, will ultimately determine the utility of self-organization concepts and methods in physical geography
Biology · Convergent evolution · Divergence (linguistics) · Economic geography · Energy landscape · Epistemology · Geography · Physics · Self-Organization · Spatial organization · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Ecology · Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
Becoming-forest, becoming-local
Coupled and complex
On the role of cultures of (out-)migration in the migration decisions of young people in shrinking regions of Central Germany
Historical ecology, human niche construction and landscape in pre-Columbian Amazonia
Epistemological possibilities and imperatives of complexity research
Simplifying complexity
River meander behaviour and instability
Complexity science and human geography
A Century of Physical Geography Research in the Annals
Channel Adjustments to Dams in the Connecticut River Basin
The Influence of Complex Systems Interactions on Barrier Island Dune Vegetation Pattern and Process
Self-Organized Criticality in Riverbank Systems
Thinking across the divide
Interpretation of erosion rates on rock surfaces
Patterns and Processes of Tree Islands in Two Transitional Environments
Complexity at Advancing Ecotones and Frontiers
| Unique citing works | 16 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,64 |
| Citation span | 2001 - 2021 (21) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 16 |