THE ABSTRACT CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENT

The concept of environment is discussed in its abstract form within the general systems framework. The environment of a system can be progressively specified in a logical sequence from the primitive concept of "everything that is not the system" through the concepts of substantial environment, of another system that influences the system under consideration, of another system coupled to elements of the considered system, of "influencing" and "influenced" environments, and culminating with the concept of environmental system. The degree of specification sought depends upon the available information about the system and the goals of the researcher. The environment of an element (subsystem) which is part of a system is in the general case partially internal and partially external to the system. The characterization of the environment may change fundamentally in nature with changing levels of conceptualization. The abstract concept of environment is valid for any situation, included time-varying systems.