APPROACHES TO VISUALIZATION OF TRADE NETWORKS Ryan Denniston Duke Data Visualization Friday Forum November 16, 2012
Outline The nature of the problem(s) Non-spatial approaches (Excel) Spatial approaches (ArcGIS) Sharing options
The Project Political economy of tobacco control in Southeast Asia Southeast Asia increasingly wealthy, one of the few areas with low female prevalence
The Project Political Economy of tobacco control in Southeast Asia Liberalized markets heighten importance of trade to health outcomes Principal origins and destinations of cigarettes within and from outside the region Especially large flows, indicative of transit points Trade discrepancies, suggesting smuggling activity Regional manufacturing hubs
The Project ASEAN Region – AFTA operational in 1996
The Nature of the Problem Provide a clear understanding of the underlying data How important are the methods for the results? Case selection (year, categories, etc.) Effective communication to applied audiences Visible impact with minimal explanation Compelling Mitigation of data anomalies (missing data, etc.) Balance between comprehensiveness and complexity At what point is the visualization overwhelming? Who is the audience?
Project Data Data Time series, cross sectional (annual) Multiple levels of analysis Typical sources: UN Comtrade, FAO Bilateral Trade Data
Non-Spatial Examples – Grouped Bars Visualizes relative positions of cases Year and case selection not apparent Single variable, no groupings without data manipulation
Non-Spatial Examples – Stacked Column Visualizes relative positions of cases Year selection not apparent
Non-Spatial Examples – Line Charts Limited case selection Outliers and volatile data may cause problems
Non-Spatial Examples – Line Chart
Non-Spatial Examples – Radar Chart
Non-Spatial Examples - Tradeoffs Problems Data volatility when range of years displayed Outliers distort when multiple cases displayed Repeated cross-section (year selection) Limited number of cases due to complexity Others?
Spatial Examples – GIS Software ArcGIS essentially Excel with a column containing a shape (set of ordered coordinates) Qgis is an alternate program Recent tools launched to plot spatial data (addresses, lat/lon, some polygon sets, custom boundaries)
Spatial Examples – Choropleth Maps
Spatial Examples Potential problems Year-over year volatility Threshold selection (across cases and over time) Zero value, not available Time series, ArcGIS does not sense minimum and maximum Trade networks at different level of analysis Levels of analysis Freeze one country, report its bilateral values over time Find or create new layer at correct level of analysis
Spatial Examples – Bilateral Trade
Spatial Examples – Bilateral Trade
Spatial Examples Problems Volatility of data remains Tradeoff between complexity and comprehensiveness Threshold selection Stability possible with grouping, data transformation
Spatial Examples ArcScene is a 3D visualization and analysis program bundled with Map. Designed for x y z data, but can be coerced to multidimensional data. Mathematica, R, Matlab are other, likely better alternatives
Tableau 7
Tableau 7 - Sharing
Tableau 7 – Custom Layers
Tableau 7 – Custom Layers
ArcGIS Online - Geocoding
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ArcGIS Online – Multiple Layers and Types , , ,
Google Fusion Tables
Google Fusion Tables
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