Introduction
WRI’s Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) is a web-based data explorer providing comprehensive and comparable greenhouse gas emissions data sets as well as other climate-relevant indicators. This tool can be used to analyze a wide range of climate-related data questions and help inform policy discussions and decisions within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other forums.
CAIT is designed to enable efficient and user-friendly exploration of data. The platform allows a user to select a data collection and focus on a subset of data within that collection. The user can refine what is viewed within each data table, and create visualizations from the data portrayed. These visualizations can be downloaded for use in publications or presentations, shared via hyperlinks or social media, or embedded in online materials such as blog posts and news articles. In addition, users can export raw data to their computer as Excel files for further analysis offline.
Access, Updates, and Feedback
- CAIT is accessible from most standard web browsers, with use of Chrome or Safari encouraged for better viewing results. No user ID or password is required.
- The CAIT mobile site can be accessed through most small-screen mobile devices by visiting cait2.wri.org; The site switches automatically to the mobile view if the screen is too small for the full-sized version. Desktop/laptop users can also view and use the mobile interface by simply reducing the size of the browser window.
- Data and platform updates will be deployed periodically; sign up for e-mail notifications on these and other updates (and join the CAIT Google Group) through the Community link.
- User comments and suggestions on site functionality, desired features, available data collections, etc., are encouraged and can be submitted through the Feedback form.
- Specific data questions or technical issues can be sent by e-mail to wcait@wri.org.
Functionality
CAIT allows users to view climate-related figures and trends associated with particular regions, countries, and U.S. states. The CAIT interface includes a main table that portrays data based on user selections from the left-side navigation pane. In addition, within the data table columns can be added and removed, rows turned on and off, and data sorted by user preference, to focus on different areas of the data collection being viewed. Further, the data table controls the visualizations that appear at the bottom of the interface, and this visualization preview pane can be kept in view or hidden depending on user preference.
CAIT functions are described in more detail below.
- Left Side Navigation
Most user controls for viewing data can be found in the left-side navigation pane, as follows:
- Back/Forward buttons
- These buttons operate similar to an “undo/redo” feature, bringing the user to the previous screen view.
- Select Data Collection
- CAIT defaults to the Country GHG Emissions data collection on startup. Clicking on the “Select Data Collection” field in the upper left of the screen opens a drop-down menu showing all available data collections (e.g., Country GHG Emissions, U.S. State GHG Emissions, etc.). The user may select a different collection for viewing at any time.
- Information about each collection, including methodology, is available either by clicking on the “Methodology” link below the name of the selected collection, or by clicking the yellow “i” circle to the right of each collection name in the drop-down menu.
- Select Data Subset
- CAIT portrays a subset of the selected data collection at any given time (e.g., Emissions Totals, Emissions by Gas, Emissions by Sector, etc.).
- Clicking on the “Select Data Subset” field below the Data Collection tab opens a drop-down menu showing all available subsets of data for the collection selected, including the range of years available for each subset.
- Information about sources for each subset can be found by clicking on the “Data Sources” link below the name of the selected subset.
- Select Data Calculation
- This feature allows users to apply calculations to the data being viewed, selecting between Total Values, Percent Change from Prior Year, Per Capita, Per GDP-PPP (or Per State GDP), or Cumulative.
- Additional information about these calculations can be found by clicking on the “Definitions” link in this field.
- Search Box
- Typing in states, countries, or regions in the search box compiles them individually in the table view.
- Select Year(s)
- Changes the table to display data for the specified year(s). Options include entering years individually (e.g., “2007”), as ranges (e.g., “2003-2005”), or as lists (e.g., “2003, 2006”).
- Export Data in Table
- Downloads the data currently being viewed in the table to the user’s computer as a Comma Separated Values (.csv) file.
- Request Data
- Provides a form in which users can request specific data from the CAIT team (e.g., all CAIT data collections, certain data sets not available online, etc.).
- Table Navigation
Additional sorting and refining of the data view can be done within the data table itself, as follows:
- Adding, removing, and sorting columns:
- Click the “X” under a column name to remove it from the table. (Note that this also removes the corresponding visual from the visualization preview pane below.)
- Click the “Add+” button at the top right of the table to add columns of data.
- Click the yellow up/down arrow under the column headers to adjust the order (ascending or descending) of the values in the column.
- Click on country, state, or region names in the table to narrow down to viewing data and corresponding visualizations on those particular places.
- Viewing additional information:
- Click the “i” icon next to a country/state/region name to see an overview of all data available within CAIT for that particular location. Within each overview, click on a specific indicator to go directly to that table view.
- When viewing regions, clicking the lined circle icon next to a region name will expand the table to a list of countries or states associated with that region.
- Focusing the visualization on a column or year:
- An "eye" icon will appear next to columns or year rows when the visualization pane is only able to display one at a time.
- Click the "eye" next to the column or year to show that data in the visualization pane.
- Currently only one column is shown when viewing bar or line charts and the column types differ, and searching for multiple countries and multiple years.
- Currently only one year is shown when viewing pie or map charts and searching for multiple years.
- Visualizations
CAIT provides visualizations of the data being viewed, which can be downloaded or shared as needed. Use this feature as follows:
- Visualization preview pane
- Graphical representations of the data being viewed in the table appear in the bottom visualization preview pane.
- The preview pane can be hidden from or brought into view using the up/down arrow icon on the top right of the pane.
- Chart types include map, bar, line, stacked bar, and pie. (Note: There are rules in place to control which chart types are available depending on the data being viewed.)
- Click on the different icons at the top left of the preview pane to see each chart type. Select the type that best suits what you are trying to depict.
- Click on “Zoom and Share” in the upper left of the visualization preview pane to enlarge the desired visualization and download or share it.
- Share Visualization panel:
- Review the visualization to ensure it provides an accurate representation of the selected data. If desired, enter a custom title for the visualization in the “Custom title” field.
- Choose how you wish to share the visualization. The “Social Share” option posts the visualization to the user-selected social media outlet. The “Embed” option provides an embed code for use in online postings such as blogs or news articles. The “Download” option provides the user with a static image of the selected visualization (saved as a .png file).
- Note: for static .png downloads, due to space constraints there is a limit to how many place names will show in the legend.
- Other features
- Saving and Sharing URLs
- The URL changes as you navigate through CAIT, providing a unique address for each table view.
- The URL can be saved to return back to a particular view at a later time, or to share this view with another user (e.g., via e-mail or as a hyperlink in a document) to point out a particular finding.
- CAIT Home and Project Page
- Clicking on the CAIT “home” link at the top left of the screen will return the user to the default CAIT start page (i.e., the Country GHG Emissions data collection, showing Emissions Totals and Total Values).
- Clicking on the WRI logo at the top left will bring the user to the CAIT project home page, where one can find additional information about CAIT including related publications, blog posts, data findings, and other items of interest.
