Earth Surface Systems

Discussions of "systems" and the "systems approach" tend to fall into one of two categories: the panegyrical and the disparaging. Scholars who praise the systems approach do so in the belief that it is a powerful and precise method of study. Scholars who try to shoot it down fail to see any advantage in it; indeed, many deem it periIicious. Van Dyne (1980, p. 889) records a facetious comment he once heard, the gist of which ran: "In instances where there are from one to two variables in a s...