Mathematical Modelling at IIASA

Much of IIASA's research in the first ten years of its existence has been concerned with the analysis of complex systems; some of these have been global in scale, such as the studies of energy or food and agriculture, while others, like the Lake Balaton study or the work on small open economies, have concentrated on individual smaller systems. Mathematical modelling has played an important role in all of these analyses. Not only does this approach provide a simplified representation of real-world systems, allowing the modeller to study and sometimes even predict the behavior of the system, but also it can be used for policy analysis and planning purposes. To support these many and varied applications, IIASA has had to make significant advances in modelling methodology, which have allowed the modelling activities to develop in new directions. In view of IIASA's contributions to the theory and the practice of mathematical modelling, therefore, it is particularly appropriate that a collection of papers by IIASA researchers should have been published as a special issue of "Mathematical Modelling." These seven papers give some idea of the range of IIASA's modelling activities, but by no means represent the full scope of IIASA's research program. They have been selected for their methodological or practical relevance to the art of mathematical modelling