Realist Informed Ripple Effects Mapping

Realist Ripple Effects Mapping

Realist ripple effects mapping (RREM) is a combination of realist evaluation and ripple effects mapping.

Ripple Effects Mapping is a participatory method that helps people understand how activities lead to outcomes and wider system changes.

It brings together different voices to explore intended and unintended impacts, showing the “ripple effects” that spread over time. Because it uses insights from many stakeholders, it reveals how actions and events connect and build on each other.

When combined with realist evaluation, this approach also explains what works, for whom, in what context, and how and why impacts occur. This is especially useful in complex areas like Place-based working public health, where context and human decisions strongly shape future actions.

A video on "Towards Realist Ripple Effects Mapping" - by The Realist Hub

NELP's very own Louis Ryan was welcomed to discuss Realist Informed Ripple Effects Mapping (RREM) and shared examples of RREM has been applied in practice (notably through their work in place based systemic working to tackle physical inactivity).

Published Works on RREM

• Towards Realist-Informed Ripple Effects Mapping (RREM): Positioning the Approach in the BMC Medical Research Methodology journal
• Public Health Wales Behavioural Science Unit’s Impact Across The Public Health System: A Realist Ripple Effects Mapping Evaluation on the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Investment for Health and Well-being website.