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Chaos in Hydrology pp 375–382Cite as

Final Thoughts: Philosophy and Pragmatism

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Abstract

Research on chaos theory in hydrology over the past three decades offers new opportunities as well as challenges. These opportunities and challenges, in turn, provide interesting ways to further explore the relevance and role of chaos theory in hydrology. An obvious question to ask is: if, and how, chaos theory fits within our two dominant, but extreme, views of hydrology of the twentieth century: deterministic and stochastic? This chapter attempts to answer this question, from both philosophical and pragmatic perspectives. It is pointed out that the underpinning concepts of nonlinear interdependence, hidden determinism and order, and sensitivity to initial conditions of chaos theory provide the necessary means to represent both the deterministic and the stochastic characteristics of hydrologic systems. This also leads to the argument that chaos theory offers a balanced middle ground to bridge the gap between the two extreme views of determinism and stochasticity and, therefore, serves as a coupled deterministic-stochastic paradigm to study hydrology in a holistic manner.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Bellie Sivakumar

  2. Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Bellie Sivakumar

Authors
  1. Bellie Sivakumar
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Sivakumar, B. (2017). Final Thoughts: Philosophy and Pragmatism. In: Chaos in Hydrology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2552-4_15

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