Data Visualization
Ukraine Food Crisis
In my Data Visualization class, my classmate and I decided to create a story surrounding the Russia-Ukraine War that started in early 2022. We wanted to create a visualization that provided a new perspective on what was happening. Ukraine is one of the biggest exporters of major grain products like barley, maize, and wheat, and we were curious how the war affected the grain market.
We decided that it would be best to approach the topic from a humanistic perspective and that we should evoke an agricultural feel through the use of earth tones in the color palette, illustrating hands, and individual grains of wheat and maize which are the two largest grain exports from Ukraine. We wanted the viewer to empathize with how a significant drop in grain production influenced global prices. The timeline shows each month, the amount of wheat and maize that was exported, and the rise and fall of prices.
The beginning of the Russia-Ukraine War significantly increased the global prices of wheat and maize since Ukraine was a major producer and exporter of both. In addition, we thought it would be interesting for the viewer to see where these crops are exported, between developed and developing nations, since developing nations have fewer import choices and are likely to rely more heavily on Ukraine's wheat and maize exports. This visualization illustrates a deeper narrative about the multi-dimensional effects of the Russia-Ukraine War.
