10.2190/ES.32.4.d 0877388514L77673 4 Environmental Systems Collapse: A Qualitative Critique with an Exemplar 335 348 20111121 20111121 20111121 20111121 0877388514L77673.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=0877388514L77673 4 Ranen Sen Sharadindra Chakrabarti Presidency College, Kolkata Groundwater systems alarmingly contaminated with arsenic content have become a matter of great concern in India and many other nations presents a broad assessment of this problem and connects it to non-linearities potentially leading to chaotic collapse. A systems approach provides enabling techniques for anticipating the collapse of the system. The use of mathematical models facilitates the unfolding of the dynamics involved. A qualitative consideration exemplars in the Bengal basin of India reinforces the conclusions and prognoses that are well in accord those in the 2006 Living Planet Report from the prognostic viewpoint. Alligood, T. K., Saccer, T. D., & Yorke, J. A. (1996). <i>Chaos: An introduction to dynamical systems.</i> New York: Springer-Verlag. Gleick, J. (1987). <i>Chaos</i> (p. 352). London, UK: Abacus. (Reprinted 1983). Govt. of West Bengal, India. (1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2001). <i>District Reports on South 24-Parganas.</i> (Restricted Circulation). Grebogi, C., Ott, E., & Yorke, J. A. (1983). Crises, sudden changes in chaotic attractors and transient chaos. <i>Physicia, 7</i>, 181-200. Mukherjee-Goswami, A., Nath, B., Jana, J., Sahu, S. J., Sarkar, M. J., Jacks, G., et al. (2008). Hydrogeochemical behavior of arsenic-enriched groundwater in the deltaic environment: Comparison between two study sites in West Bengal, India. <i>Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, 99</i>, 22-30. Mandelbrot, B. B. (1977). <i>Fractals, form, chance and dimension.</i> New York: W. H. Freeman and Co. Mandelbrot, B. B. (1982). The <i>fractal geometry of nature</i> (p. 468). New York: Freeman & Co. Nath, B., Chakraborty, S., Burnol, A., Stuben, D., Chatterjee, D., & Charlet, L. (2009). Mobility of arsenic in the subsurface environment: An integrated hydrogeochemical study and sorption model of the sandy aquifer materials. <i>Journal of Hydrogeology, 364</i>, 236-248. Pal, T., Mukherjee, P. K., & Sengupta, S. (2002). Nature of arsenic pollutants in ground-water of Bengal basin—A case study from Baruipur area, West Bengal, India. <i>Current Science, 82</i>(5), 554-561. WWF-India. (2006). <i>Living Planet Report.</i> WWF International Avenue du Mont-Blanc, Switzerland, 44 pp.