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When you start to study a new environmental area and trying to get an understanding of its complex systems it is good to first do a System Analysis modelling. In this analysis you pick apart the many parameters that make up the whole system. A natural system often has several interconnecting parts and this analysis lets you see its inside dynamics.

 

First in the modelling you state your objective and then you define the different parameters related to this specific problem or question. Then to understand the way the individual parameters influence each other you make a Cross-impact matrix. In this matrix the parameters are given a number that represents the power of influence they have on each other. The scale is defined with values from 0-3, from No Impact to High Impact. When this has been made for all the parameters a total sum value can be found that implies how much individual parameters affects and gets affected by the others.

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To better visualise these relationships a Cause-effect diagram is made where the total values for the rows and columns from the matrix is plotted in a graph. The parameters located in the cause "corner" are these with the most influence in the system and those furthest to the effect "corner" the most influenced by the others. Another aid to visualize the dynamics of the parameters is a System Relationship graph. The influence scale used in the matrix is described by arrows of different weight between parameter boxes. Here you can see the existence of possible feedback loops in the system. Negative loops can give a stabilizing effect, buffering, to the system and positive loops a destabilizing, instigating each other.

Analythical modelling

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