Coherent Structures in Complex Systems : Selected Papers of the XVII Sitges Conference on Statistical Mechanics Held a Sitges Barcelona Spain 5–9 June 2000 A rich variety of real life physical problems which are still poorly understood are of a nonlinear nature. Examples include turbulence granular flows detonations and flame propagation fracture dynamics and a wealth of new biological and chemical phenomena which are being discovered. Particularly interesting among the manifestations of nonlinearity are coherent structures. This book contains reviews and contributions reporting on the state of the art regarding the role of coherent structures and patterns in nonlinear science