BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

BASIN EROSION 2)

← Back

The progressive invasion of a stable basin of attraction by instabilities generated by a chaotic attractor.

During this process the basin is progressively divided into layers of smaller and smaller regions of stability and of instability, i.e. becomes fractalized.

In such a case, the basin may become "… so thin or wispy that small disturbances can knock the system out of the basin to converge somewhere else" (A. McROBIE & M. THOMPSON, 1990, p.45).

These authors add: "To be safe any engineering system must have its attractor at a prudent distance from its basin boundary. Structural engineers refer to failure as "exceedance of the ultimate limit stage". Once a structure passes this condition, it will collapse'' (Ibid.)

This quite insidious process of loss of stability is responsible for numerous structural disasters in buildings, ships, airplanes, bridges, etc. submitted to external disturbances like winds, overload, collisions, small seismic movements, etc…

It is also present in celestial mechanics, where H. POINCARÉ first met it in the study of Saturn rings.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint