Tools for Ecological Engineering

This section introduces a number of tools for use in Ecological Engineering problem-solving. These tools include:

• Programming (in Python, a simple, widely used, powerful, and free, open-source tool that supports a very broad variety of engineering problem-solving tools and algorithms. We provide some basics of Python programming, as well as introductions to some very commonly used librairies (packages) available to Python programs.
• Data analysis approaches common in Ecological Engineering analyses.
• Data visualization techniques in Python
• Basics of Modeling, including
  • Linear and Nonlinear Regression Analysis
  • Mechanistic Models in zero, one and two dimensions
  • Systems Dynamics models for ecological systems analysi
  • Stochastic Models for representing variability and uncertainty in models
• Geospatial Data Manipulation and Analysis
• Geospatial Modeling
• Life-Cycle Assessment

In all cases, we present both the basic idea of an approach, as well as examples implementing the approach in Python.