ABSTRACTThe recent world‐wide trend towards centralization of all environmental management functions into one regulatory agency has illustrated the necessity for resources management agencies to adopt a total systems viewpoint. Environmental systems are typically complex and multi‐dimensional in nature. Mathematical models for the management of air, water and land resources have found wide acceptance among planners and decision‐makers. Ecological models of life processes have not reached the same state of development or acceptance.A general review of ecological systems theory and examples of the types of ecological models that have been developed to date arc presented in this paper. With this material as a background and given the vast literature on engineering and economic models, a conceptual framework for an approach to environmental studies and the analysis of polluted environmental systems is pres
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