Pardee RAND Food-Energy-Water Interactive Index

The Pardee RAND Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Index is based on the principle that food, energy, and water are critical to social stability and economic growth. Insecurity in any one area poses serious impediments to human health, wellbeing, and development.

Through data visualization, the FEW Index gives users a holistic view of the recent status of resource provision for countries around the world. The index can help identify how different trends—for example, climate change or population growth—could affect resource security in the future.

How to use the tool ⤵

Note: For additional functionality, view this visualization on a larger screen.

How to Use the Food-Energy-Water Index

In full width (on a desktop computer, laptop, or large tablet turned horizontally), the tool includes four purple navigation buttons across the top of the visualization that offer different views, and menu options appear to the right of the visualization. On mobile devices, only three buttons are available, and menu options appear below the visualization.

Map View

  1. Each country on the world map is color-coded according to FEW Index rankings (a ratio of the country's food, water, and energy accessibility and availability), using a palette ranging from pale blue to dark purple. Countries with lower FEW Index values (i.e., countries that are more resource-insecure) are colored with lighter blue shades, while countries with higher FEW Index values are colored with darker purple shades. Countries for which we had insufficient data to calculate the FEW Index for the selected period are left unshaded.

  2. You can adjust the display using four drop-down menus: Country, Indexes, Year, and Human Development Index (HDI) Code. "Country" lets you select one or more countries on the map to the exclusion of others; it can also be used to restore the original version of the map by selecting "All." "Indexes" lets you view the map using the FEW Index (default) or any of the three subindexes. Year" lets you view the map for a specific period. "HDI Code" lets you filter countries based on their HDI classification. The subindex maps use the same color code as described above for the FEW Index.

  3. Hover over a country to see a pop-up box that displays the country's name and basic data for the selected period, including HDI code and HDI value, FEW Index value, and values for each of the three subindexes (energy, food, and water).

  4. Click on a country on the map to select it. This will gray out all other countries. In full width view, a box plot visualization will appear below the menu options on the right of the screen. The box plot visualizes the country's performance on the FEW Index, the three subindexes, and the components of each subindex for the selected period on a number line from 0 to 1. To see the box plot for another country, click on that country. To return to the full map view, click on the highlighted country or anywhere in the empty space representing oceans and seas.

    If you have a country selected and then navigate to the Data View or Plots buttons, that country will continue to be highlighted. Notably, if you select a country in the Map View and then click to see the Data View, you may need to scroll down to where the selected country is highlighted.

  5. If you are using the tool in full-width mode and select multiple countries in the Map View, box plots for each selected country will appear to the right of the Map View dashboard. Because the plots are arranged horizontally in alphabetical order, you may need to scroll to view all of them.

Data View

  1. Select this button to inspect country data in more detail. Countries are sorted first in descending order by HDI code, from Very High to N/A (not applicable), and then alphabetically within each HDI code category. Cells containing data are shaded using the same color scale as the map view, with cells containing lower values shaded a pale blue and cells containing higher values shaded a dark purple. Cells that are missing data are unshaded.

  2. Use the drop-down menus on the right side to view data for specific countries, different years, or HDI codes.

Plot(s)

At full screen width, four plot options are available and the button is labeled Plots. At mobile width, only the FEW Index plot is available, so the button is labeled Plot.

  1. Select this button to see a bubble plot of each country's FEW Index value and subindex values for the selected period. The horizontal and vertical axes represent the country's values on the water and energy subindexes, respectively. The size of each bubble corresponds to its performance on the food subindex, with smaller bubbles signifying lower food subindex values. Finally, the color of each bubble illustrates its performance on the FEW Index, with pale blue hues denoting lower FEW Index values and dark purple hues representing higher values.

  2. Hover over a bubble to see the country name and basic country data for that period, including the HDI value and HDI code and the country's performance on the FEW Index and the three subindexes.

  3. Click on a bubble to highlight that country and gray out the other bubbles. From here, if you click on the Map View or Data View buttons, that country will remain highlighted.

  4. Use the drop-down menus to view the bubble plots for different years or to filter countries by HDI code.

Energy, Food, and Water Plots

These buttons are available only at full screen width.

  1. These buttons display bubble plots that illustrate each country's performance on the resource's subindex (energy, food, or water) and its components for the selected period. The horizontal and vertical axes of the bubble plot represent the two resource subcomponents (accessibility and availability, respectively). The shade of each bubble represents the country's overall subindex value, with pale blue hues denoting lower values and dark purple hues signifying higher values. In the plot for water, the size of the bubbles signifies the third subcomponent of the water subindex, water adaptive capacity.

  2. Hover over a bubble to see the country name, HDI category and HDI value, and resource-specific information, including values for the subindex and its components.

  3. Use the drop-down menus on the top right to view the bubble plots for different years or to filter countries by HDI code.

  4. If you click a bubble to highlight a specific country, you can navigate among the buttons and see the location of that country in the other bubble plots.

Variations

This button is available only at full screen width and includes two options: Map and Plots.

Map Variation

  1. The Map Variation displays the predicted variation in a selected index or subindex over the period from 2015 through 2019. The default variation shows the predicted percentage change in the entire FEW Index over the 2015-2019 period. A change of zero percent is color-coded gray. Darker shades of purple represent increasing improvements in the index value and darker shades of red represent more severe declines in the index value.

    Note: The variation displayed above and in the subsequent steps is the predicted variation in the respective index value over the 2015-2019 period based on a linear regression of the available index data, rather than the actual change in the index as reflected by the data. This approach was chosen because it averted the problem of comparing countries for which some of the data from 2015 or 2019 were missing. We also felt that displaying the trend as predicted by a regression using all available data points for a country offered a clearer picture of the developments over this period, as opposed to only comparing figures from 2015 and 2019.

  2. There are three drop-down menus to the right of the map: Country, HDI Code, and Index. The Country menu lets you filter through the list for specific countries, or restore the map to its original state by selecting the "All" option. The HDI Code menu lets you filter the map to display countries within one or more specific HDI Codes. Index lets you select a different index or subindex and view the predicted change in it over the 2015-2019 period.

    Note that the color scheme is relative rather than absolute: The deepest purple shade on this version corresponds to whatever the maximum index improvement is rather than to a fixed percentage.

  3. Hover over a country to see its name, the predicted percentage changes in the FEW Index and each of the subindexes for that country over the 2015-2019 period, and the p-values associated with each predicted value.

Plot Variation

  1. The Plot Variation displays the predicted variation in the indexes plotted for all countries for which data are available, in order to facilitate comparison. There are two visualizations on this dashboard:

    Predicted Change in FEW Index with Time: This visualization plots the predicted percentage change in the overall FEW Index for all countries over the 2015-2019 period on a number line.

    Predicted Change in Subindexes with Time: This visualization is a bubble plot of the predicted percentage changes in the three subindexes for each country over the 2015-2019 period. The horizontal and vertical axes represent the predicted percentage changes in the food subindex and water subindex, respectively, while the color of the bubbles represents the predicted percentage change in the energy subindex. A change of zero percent is color-coded gray. Darker shades of purple represent increasing improvements in the index value and darker shades of red represent more severe declines in the index value.

  2. Hover over a bubble in the top visualization to view the associated country's name, the predicted change in its overall FEW Index over the 2015-2019 period, and the p-value associated with that prediction.

  3. Hover over a bubble in the bottom visualization to view the associated country's name, its predicted percentage changes in each of the three subindexes over the 2015-2019 period, and the p-values associated with those predictions.

  4. In the right-hand navigation, the drop-down Country menu lets you select specific countries to inspect their trends in both charts; selecting one or more countries hides all other countries' bubbles. The drop-down HDI Code menu lets you display one or more groups of countries' bubbles based on their HDI code.