This book is devoted to the study and optimization of spatiotem- ral
stochastic processes. These are processes that simultaneously - velop in
space and time under random influences. Such processes - cur almost
everywhere when the global behavior of complex systems is studied, e.g.,
in physical and technical systems, population dynamics, neural networks,
computer and telecommunication networks, complex production networks and
flexible manufacturing systems, logistic n- works and transportation
systems, environmental engineering, climate modeling and prediction,
earth surface models, and so on. In the study of spatiotemporal
stochastic processes the classical c- cepts of random fields (which are
models for spatially distributed r- dom phenomena) and of stochastic
processes (hich are usually thought to describe the evolution over time
of systems under random influences) converge. Over the last twenty
years, many research monographs were written with emphasis on this
unifying point of view, as were a huge number of articles and papers on
this subject