Identification and estimation of continuous-time, data-based mechanistic (DBM) models for environmental systems

Initially, the paper provides an introduction to the main aspects of existing time-domain methods for identifying linear continuous-time models from discrete-time data and shows how one of these methods has been applied to the identification and estimation of a model for the transportation and dispersion of a pollutant in a river. It then introduces a widely applicable class of new, nonlinear, State Dependent Parameter (SDP) models. Finally, the paper describes how this SDP approach has been used to identify, estimate and control a nonlinear differential equation model of global carbon cycle dynamics and global warming.