Abstract for: Causal Maps to Analyze Policy Complexity and Intergovernmental Coordination: An empirical study of floodplain recommendations

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study on floodplain management using system dynamics to define attributes and characteristics of recommendation arguments. Relationships identified in the 97 recommendations produced a series of causal loop diagrams. The diagrams were the unit of analysis to test the association between policy implementation and floodplain management issues, solutions, and government institutions. The causal maps were also used to analyze the effect of intergovernmental relationships on recommendation outcomes. The findings show that intergovernmental coordination did not hinder the implementation of successful solutions. This paper describes a multi-method approach for analyzing policy recommendations. It is the author’s hope the policy analysis strategy described in this paper increases the relative attractiveness of system dynamics research to editors of public policy and public administration journals, who may be unfamiliar with SD contributions in policy analysis.