Path Analysis in Systems Science

Typical areas with which systems science is concerned, such as biological, behavioral, and social processes, transportation, urban and environmental studies, involve the development of mathematical models of the underlying processes. In general, the observed data of the variables associated with these processes provide the statistical description of these variables. It is of considerable importance to infer the functional relationship between these variables using their statistical description. Models that depict the functional relationship between the variables are known as causal models. The application of path analysis to the development of causal models, which are useful in systems science, is discussed. Path analysis is described and illustrated with examples. The usefulness of path analysis to systems engineers involved in the development of information systems is pointed out.