FlowingData Forums » Data Visualization

advice for some time-series data visualization

Started 2 months ago by kerimcan / 8 posts

  1. kerimcan
    Member
    Posted 2 months ago #

    Hi, I looked for advice or example of a visualization I have in mind but couldn't find any. Below is a description. I know R.

    I have data on peacekeeping operations and civil wars since 1985. "Peacekeeping operations" (PKO) variable takes on 4 values: No operation, UN operation, non-UN operation, mixed operation. I know the value of this variable for each country and each year. I want to show, for the countries that had at least one civil war (around 40 countries), the values of the PKO variable.

    I imagine a graph where countries are on the y-axis and years are on the x-axis. Each country has a horizontal strip and the strip can each year take a different color depending on the value of the PKO variable (white if "no op", blue if "UN op", yellow if "non-UN op", green if "mixed op").

    Could you tell me the name of such graphs and do you know if I can do this in R?

    Thanks for your help.

  2. krees
    Member
    Posted 2 months ago #

    Perhaps you're thinking of a basic heatmap?

    I don't use R, but one of these looks like it might help:
    http://sekhon.polisci.berkeley.edu/stats/html/heatmap.html
    http://enotacoes.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/easy-guide-to-drawing-heat-maps-to-pdf-with-r-with-color-key/

  3. nathany
    FlowingData Editor
    Posted 1 month ago #

    i guess a regular time series chart might work for this too.

  4. kerimcan
    Member
    Posted 1 month ago #

    Thanks for your help. Heatmaps are what I was looking for. I found especially the second link in krees' message useful.

  5. New High Score
    Member
    Posted 1 month ago #

    You can also look at the concept of Marimekko charts, which are a similar concept.

  6. nathany
    FlowingData Editor
    Posted 1 month ago #

    I guess while we're at it, a treemap/mosaic plot or whatever it's called, could work too.

  7. joshhemann
    Member
    Posted 1 month ago #

    This might be obvious, but a heatmap works best when you impose some order to your variables. Time has a natural ordering but you might sort the 40 countries by GDP, those in NATO vs not, etc, and hopefully blocks of colors jump out and reveal information more easily. You should post your images when you are done!

  8. nathany
    FlowingData Editor
    Posted 1 month ago #

    I second that.


Reply

You must log in to post.

About this Topic