Model-building has not, in general, been taught in universities and it is therefore often hard for inexperienced graduates to build a reliable model for a newly specified system. In addition, engineers from different disciplines are often isolated and may not know that colleagues from other specialties have to solve related problems with the same or similar tools, and that they may have different experiences or even more successful algorithms.

Designed for use by scientists and practitioners in various disciplines such as economics, social sciences, politics and engineering, this title highlights the advantages of model-building based on systems theory.

It includes hints, methods and tools for obtaining reliable mathematical models and avoiding pitfalls.

This is a comprehensive book on mathematical model building. I have particularly enjoyed the author's statement that the model should be as simple as possible and as complicated as necessary. I think that his treatment of the subject of model building in this book is close to that ideal.

MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS , .