Natural Classification of Geographic Systems: Knowledge Representation Models
Theoretical and empirical bases of creation of natural classifications for objects with different nature in comparison with available knowledge on laws for formation of periodic system of chemical elements are investigated. The analogy of the principles of classification of geographical objects with the properties of this system is traced. The relations of concepts and procedures of typology, systematics, classification, taxonomy and meronomy are considered on examples. It is shown that the typification of objects is based on metatheoretic ideas about the stratification (bundling) of reality on the elements of the base of fiber bundle and the manifold of environmental conditions. The element relationship schemes define the classification of types with the demonstration of analogy and homology of taxonomic positions in the classification structure. Model schemes of linear order, triangulation, hierarchical classification, ordination in the space of features (merons) with fractal properties of self-similarity are distinguished. The possibility of transition from one scheme of knowledge representation to another provides the emergence of natural classifications that allow to make assumptions. In each typological layer, an archetype is manifested as model of the structure and functioning of objects of this nature, the interaction of parts and characteristics of which is described by differential equations of timeless steady-state periodic oscillations. Typological quantization arises as a solution of these equations with the determination of eigenvalues of taxonomic position and eigenfunctions of interaction in a particular environment. Using the formulas of the reliability theory as model functions, empirical and theoretical relations in the form of equations of mathematical models of the corresponding archetypes are obtained for the assessment of the integrated hazard of ecological and geomorphological processes.