Summary

The rhythms of technology and nature are out of phase. This fact underlies the global environmental crisis. Man-made perturbations, even small local ones, can trigger large-scale effects. To reinstate an alliance between humans and nature, as described by Prigogine, the father of evolutionary physics, it is necessary to learn to observe the general behaviour and evolution of real systems, including human systems in their context. The theories of chaos and complexity can help us to understand these systems: all natural and man-made processes on our planet have a common matrix and are interconnected. Readers will find discussions on monitoring techniques, environmental accounting, sustainability indicators, ways of representing cities through systems language, measurement of flows and stocks, mobile geographies and dynamic mapping.