Advanced Modelling Techniques Studying Global Changes in Environmental Sciences discusses the need for immediate and effective action, guided by a scientific understanding of ecosystem function, to alleviate current pressures on the environment. Research, especially in Ecological Modeling, is crucial to support the sustainable development paradigm, in which the economy, society, and the environment are integrated and positively reinforce each other. Content from this book is drawn from the 2013 conference of the International Society for Ecological Modeling (ISEM), an important and active research community contributing to this arena. Some progress towards gaining a better understanding of the processes of global change has been achieved, but much more is needed. This conference provides a forum to present current research using models to investigate actions towards mitigating and adapting to change.
Young-Seuk Park is a Professor at the Department of Biology, Kyung University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. After completing a PhD at Pusan National University, he undertook post-doctoral research at CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, and Cemagraf in France, and he obtained an HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches / Accreditation to Supervise Research) from the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France, before returning Korea to establish his independent reseach group at Kyung Hee University. His laboratory studies the effects of environmental changes on biological systems at different hierarchical levels from molecules, individuals, populations, and communities through ecological modelling and ecological informatics approaches. In particular, his research is focused on the effects of global changes on ecosystems, and ecological monitoring and assessment for sustainable ecosystem management. He is interested in computational approaches such as machine learning techniques and advanced statistical methods. He is an associate editor of two scientific journals Annales de Limnologie – International Journal of Limnology and Journal of Ecology and Environment, and he is also on the editorial boards of several journals including Ecological Informatics and Animal Cells and Systems. He was a guest editor for several Special Issues in scientific journals including Ecological Modelling, Ecological Informatics, Annales de Limnologie – International Journal of Limnology, Inland Waters, and Water. He is the recipient of the 2014 Yeocheon Ecology Award.
Sovan Lek is a Professor at the University of Toulouse. His research is mainly in Fish Community Ecology and Ecological Modelling.
In Fish Community Ecology, his research concerns the biodiversity and the spatial distribution of fish according to the environmental characteristics and the response of fish community to the human disturbances, especially land-use, hydromorphology, climate warming. The distribution of fish is considered according to the scale of variation, varying from local to regional and global scales, in relationship with the environmental variables.
In Ecological Modelling, he is mainly interested in the use of machine learning techniques. He is also familiar with the uses of classical modelling techniques like classical statistic methods (multiple linear regression, multi-variate analyses ) and modern statistical methods (CART, GAM, PLS ).
He has participated in several EU projects in the fields of Ecology and Global changes. He also participated in bilateral projects with several Asian countries. He is an editorial member of Ecological Modelling and associate editor of Ecological Informatics.
Sven Erik Jørgensen was the professor emeritus in environmental chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. He received a master of science in chemical engineering from the Danish Technical University (1958), a doctor of environmental engineering (Karlsruhe University) and a doctor of science in ecological modelling (Copenhagen University). He was the honourable doctor at Coimbra University, Portugal and at Dar es Salaam University (Tanzania). In 1975 he founded the journal Ecological Modelling and in 1978 the ISEM (International Society of Ecological Modelling). He has received several awards, the Ruder Boskovic Medal, the Prigogine Prize, the Pascal Medal, the Einstein professorship at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Santa Chiara Prize for multidisciplinary teaching and the very prestigious Stockholm Water Prize. He has published 366 papers of which 275 were published in peer-reviewed international journals and he has edited or authored 76 books, of which several have been translated to other languages (Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese). He has authored a successful textbook in ecological modelling “Fundamentals of Ecological Modelling”, which was published as a fourth edition together with Brian Fath in 2011. It has been translated into Chinese and Russian (third edition). He authored a well received textbook in system ecology entitled “Introduction to Systems Ecology”. It was published as an English edition in 2012 and as a Chinese edition in 2013. He was editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of Ecology, published in 2008, and of the Encyclopedia of Environmental Management, published in December 2012. He has taught courses in ecological modelling in 32 different countries. He is the editorial board member of 18 international journals in the fields of ecology and environmental management. He was the president of ISEM and he also was elected member of the European Academy of Sciences, for which he was the chairman of the Section for Environmental Sciences.
