- Gustavo Nocera Santiago (@GustavoSantiago113)
Taking into account the need for a digital tool to provide open access to harmonized and scaled data of different Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework (SIAF) domains, this app was created with the objective of:
- Generate an interactive dashboard so policy-makers and researchers can visualize the data and connect the domains;
- Provide open access to gathered data of SIAF from Senegal;
- Provide the sources, methodology of manipulation, temporal and spatial resolution, and year of acquisition of data used;
While running this app in an IDE, some warnings will appear. However, these warnings are related to the emptiness of the dropdown menu and do not affect the app's opening or performance. The instructions video also will not be available while running in the IDE, but if the user accesses the website, the video can be visualized.
The framework chosen to build the app was Shiny using R computational language due to the facilitation of creating and using an interactive and free-to-use dashboard.
The design was made in Canva and can be seen in file Senegal App.pdf
Read out the paper written by our team about this app
The app was made using all into one Rmd file due to facilitating the visualization of the components inside it and the usage of flexdashboard library. The CSS code was made inside the Rmd file. There are 3 "son" folders containing files used in the app:
- Data: containing all the csv files used;
- www: all the images and;
- SHAPEFILES: shapefiles for Senegal districts.
The app is divided into 5 sections:
- Instructions, containing a video teaching how to use the app;
- Visualization, where the main part of the app is;
- Data, where a table with all the data that is used in the app is;
- Data source, containing all the source and methodology used to manipulate the data, respectively;
- About, with a brief description of SIAF and the Digital Tools, Geospatial and Farming Systems Consortium.
22 libraries were used in the app:
| Purpose | Libraries |
|---|---|
| Shiny framework usage | shiny; flexdashboard; shinydashboard; shinythemes; shinyWidgets |
| Map usage | leaflet; shapefiles; sf |
| Data manipulation | dplyr; scales; psych; reshape2; tidyverse; fmsb |
| Graph usage | ggplot2; ggradar; ggcorrplot; plotly |
| App style | htmltools; RColorBrewer; yarrr |
| Table usage | DT; openxlsx |
As said before, the CSS was embedded in the app. Into it are:
- Styles for the bootstrap widgets for Shiny;
- Adaptations for usage in small screens;
- Font and colors as designed before;
- Shiny error messages hiding;
Data is embedded into the app (not having a connection with a DBS). Inside a chunk, there are variables saving shapefiles, xlsx, and csv files. The shapefiles are used to render the map used in the Map tab, the xlsx file is used in the Data Source tab, and the csv files, are for data manipulation to display in the map and charts.
Due to the complexity of the app (a lot of graphs and different analysis and possibilities to integrate data), an instructions video were recorded. It is hosted on YouTube and is on the first page of the app. There are subtitles in English for better comprehension. It demonstrates what each tab is and how they can be used.
The visualization tab is the main part of this app. It is divided into 6 other tabs that dynamically change the content of the sideboard when selected. In every one of them, the data will be filtered according to the user selection (Districts, Years, and Variables)
| Tab | Description |
|---|---|
| Map | Presents a choropleth map of Senegal made with leaflet. Users select the variable, the year interval, and if they want the sum or the mean of the selected period. Users can hover with the mouse on the map to visualize the District name, the variable, the amount, and the unit. |
| SIAF | This tab was designed to generate the real integration of different domains of SIAF. It generates a radar chart by user's selection of first, if they want to compare between districts or between years in the same district and then, of District(s), Years and Variables |
| Correlation Matrix | A correlation Matrix of variables using years of repetitions. Can be done in one district or the whole country |
| Line Chart | Generates a line chart that can i) display temporal analysis of a variable, comparing different Districts, or ii) display temporal analysis of different variables in one District |
| Bar chart | Presents the possibility of displaying the mean or sum of variables (alone or stacked) in selected years, and comparing it with different Districts |
| Box chart | Displays a box chart using years as repetitions to compare a variable between Districts |
This tab provides a view of the whole data used in the app. There is a button on the top, where users can download it as a csv file.
In this tab, a table shows where the data were collected from and the sources of the data manipulation. As the previous tab, this one also has a button on the top, providing the possibility to download it as a csv file.
A brief text written in HTML inside the Rmd provides a brief explanation of SIAF and the Consortium and also the links for the respective websites.
Future works aim to keep the data updated. Another challenge is to add more countries to the dataset. Getting more countries improves the impact of the app in the assessment and planning of interventions in these countries since it can be used to integrate data of SIAF domains. These tasks can be solved with two options:
- Keep inserting the csv data in the app and uploading to the server or;
- Create a DBS for the app and use a library to retrieve and manipulate the data.
In order to change the countries displayed in the app, a select widget can be inserted somewhere (future work for the designer) to change the retrieved data.
The app was made by Gustavo N. Santiago, with feedback from Ana J. P. Carcedo (both from Ciampitti Lab at Kansas State University) and the Consortium members during an in-person meeting in Kansas on September 2022.
This study was supported by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL) at Kansas State University through funding United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Cooperative Agreement (Grant number AIDOAA-L-14–00006).