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Synergistic-Unique-Redundant Decomposition of Causality (SURD)

Wenbo Lyu

Last update: 2026-03-15
Last run: 2026-03-15

Source: vignettes/surd.Rmd
surd.Rmd

Introduction

Understanding how causal influences combine and interact is essential for both temporal and spatial systems. The Synergistic–Unique–Redundant Decomposition (SURD) framework provides a principled way to break down total information flow between variables into:

  • Unique contributions — information uniquely provided by one driver;
  • Redundant contributions — information shared by multiple drivers;
  • Synergistic contributions — information only revealed when drivers are considered together.