[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-657844-105":59,"doc-detail-657844-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","empowering-systemic-design-with-causal-loop-diagrams-formalization-and-analytics-657844","Empowering Systemic Design with Causal Loop Diagrams Formalization and Analytics","","Systemic Design uses Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs) to document and visualize the dynamics of complex systems by identifying relevant variables and the causal links among them. Existing CLDs are widely adopted but not yet formalized for data-driven modeling and analysis. The work proposes a metamodel to characterize loop components, polarity, and balancing or reinforcing behavior, and introduces causal routes to compare loops or routes, determine agreement versus disagreement, and extract patterns for more systematic reasoning and improved decision making.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/empowering-systemic-design-with-causal-loop-diagrams-formalization-and-analytics-657844/657844/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/empowering-systemic-design-with-causal-loop-diagrams-formalization-and-analytics-657844/657844.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Eliana","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-26",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What role do Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs) play in systemic design?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"CLDs document and visualize the dynamics of complex systems using variables (nodes) and qualitative causal relationships (edges) between them.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the metamodel characterize causal loops in the proposed approach?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It clarifies each component’s role, including polarity within loops, and classifies loops as balancing or reinforcing based on how polarities aggregate.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What are causal routes and how are they used?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"A causal route is a chain of relationships between a source and destination node. Routes and loops can then be compared to judge whether they agree or disagree.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},657844,1793120986,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},4398048949847,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/400002536579ef2da7f?_k=1778318612642679267","Empowering Systemic Design with Causal Loop Diagrams Formalization and Analytics  \nAnna Bernasconi1 , Stefano Ceri 1 , Francesco Invernici 1 , Chiara Leonardi2 and Laura Daniela Maftei1  \n1 Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering – Politecnico di Milano, Italy 2Independent researcher, Italy  \nAbstract  \nSystemic Design employs Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs) to document and visualize the dynamics of complex systems, describing their relevant factors, called variables, and the causal relationships between them. A systemic approach is essential to understanding causal relationships and improving the decisionmaking process, especially in complex, multidisciplinary contexts where the implementation of reactive and proactive measures is pivotal (e.g., public health, transport, urban development, public involvement) . While CLDs provide a consolidated and widely adopted visual representation, they have yet to be formalized in the context of data-driven modeling and analysis.  \nWe characterize CLDs using a metamodel that clarifies the role of each component, including causal loops, i.e., circuits of causal relationships. Relationships within loops are characterized by a positive or negative polarity; by aggregating the polarities along each loop, loops are then characterized as balancing or reinforcing. Within CLD diagrams, we define the new concept of causal route, i.e., a chain of relationships connecting any two pairs of nodes, denoted as source and destination. We can then compare any pair of causal loops having one node in common or any causal routes having the same source and destination, and define for such a pair whether the loops or routes are agreeing or disagreeing. Thanks to these characterizations of causal loops and routes, CLDs enable the identification of interesting patterns that can be extracted over the meta-model, thereby empowering systematic reasoning on complex systems diagrams and improving the related decision-making processes.  \nKeywords  \nSystemic Design, Causal Loop Diagrams, Conceptual Modeling, Metamodel, Data Analytics, Graph Databases  \n1. Introduction  \nSystemic Design is an emerging field driven by the ambitious objective of understanding, making sense of, and addressing complex problems in terms of “relationship and global dynamics”, rather than isolated components. Being addressed mainly by design schools, the systemic design community has created a strong Systemic Design Association ([https://systemic-design.org/](https://systemic-design.org/)), which produced scholarly publications (journals and conferences) and educational programs  \nER2025: Companion Proceedings of the 44th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling: Industrial Track, ER  \nForum, 8thSCME, Doctoral Consortium, Tutorials, Project Exhibitions, Posters and Demos, October 20 -23, 2025, Poitiers, France  \n[Envelope-Open](Envelope-Open anna.bernasconi@polimi.it)[ anna.bernasconi@polimi.it](Envelope-Open anna.bernasconi@polimi.it) (A. Bernasconi); [stefano.ceri@polimi.it](stefano.ceri@polimi.it) (S. Ceri); [francesco.invernici@polimi.it](francesco.invernici@polimi.it)  \n(F. Invernici); [chiara.leonardi@hotmail.com](chiara.leonardi@hotmail.com) (C. Leonardi); [lauradaniela.maftei@mail.polimi.it](lauradaniela.maftei@mail.polimi.it) (L. D. Maftei) Orcid 0000-0001-8016-5750 (A. Bernasconi); 0000-0003-0671-2415 (S. Ceri); 0009-0002-5423-6978 (F. Invernici)  \n © 2025 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY4.0) . CWPEURorkroceshopedings http://ceurISSN 1613-ws-0073.org CEUR Workshop Proceedings ([CEUR-WS.org](CEUR-WS.org))  \nand is gaining interest and adoption for approaching complex problems, typically fostering domain expertise exchange [1] . From a foundational point of view, it capitalizes on wellestablished design approaches to complex challenges, including design thinking [2] and systems thinking [3] . The core function of systemic des","cbCainqIW321LLvv","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainqIW321LLvv","pdf",6923816,14,"English","# Introduction\n## Systemic Design and complex problem framing\n## Causal Loop Diagrams and basic definitions\n## Causal loops: polarity and balancing/reinforcing","[{\"question\":\"What role do Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs) play in systemic design?\",\"answer\":\"CLDs document and visualize the dynamics of complex systems using variables (nodes) and qualitative causal relationships (edges) between them.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the metamodel characterize causal loops in the proposed approach?\",\"answer\":\"It clarifies each component’s role, including polarity within loops, and classifies loops as balancing or reinforcing based on how polarities aggregate.\"},{\"question\":\"What are causal routes and how are they used?\",\"answer\":\"A causal route is a chain of relationships between a source and destination node. Routes and loops can then be compared to judge whether they agree or disagree.\"}]","Empowering Systemic Design with Causal Loop Diagrams Formalization and Analytics | PDF",1792991875,35]