| Abstract: | Advances in the understanding of physical principles underlying geophysical processes have enabled us to develop complex numerical models of landscape evolution. These advances have shaped recent contributions to the long-running debates within geomorphology concerning the relative value of approaches which emphasize the unchanging (immanent) physical principles underlying geomorphic processes, compared with the historical (configurational) nature of landscapes which rely on circumstantial conditions for their existence. This paper uses examples from glaciology to assess the extent to which the developments in short-term process studies and numerical models assist us in understanding the long-term processes of landscape evolution. The implication is that while both developments stress the immanent nature of geophysics, their limitations highlight the need for a balanced approach incorporating both immanent and configurational approaches. The key is that it is possible to explain and understand long-term processes without necessarily being able to predict them with numerical models. Modelling approaches should stress the contexual nature of the studies by means of a full exploration of possible outcomes of different model components. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
