Homework 2
Tutorial
Skills used:
- grouped summary counts
- grouped summary statistics
- plotting
Instructions
Answer the questions (below), and keep track of your answers somewhere (a notepad?). You will input your answers into Canvas. Figure out the answers BEFORE opening Canvas, otherwise you’ll run out of time.
Data
You’re going to work with a random sample from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at The Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University in Oslo, Norway. The dataset is called the Geo-referenced Event Dataset (GED) which provides detailed geo-referenced information on violent events around the world.
- Download this: UCDP GED Dataset
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| id | Unique event identifer |
| year | Year event began |
| month | Month event began |
| day | Day event began |
| country | Country of event |
| type_of_violence | UCDP violence type |
| conflict_name | Name of conflict |
| side_a | Side A |
| side_b | Side B |
| source_article | Article event came from |
| latitude | Latitude |
| longitude | Longitude |
| low_death_estimate | Low estimate of number of deaths |
| high_death_estimate | High estimate of number of deaths |
| best_death_estimate | Best estimate |
Questions
Using the dataset, answer the following questions:
All of these events are geo-located, meaning they have latitude and longitude coordinates that identify their location in the world. Find a violent event that took place on your birthday (if there are none, try adding/subtracting a day, or month, until you find one).
Use the longitude and latitude coordinates of that event to find it on Google Maps. Using either street view or, if street view is not available, whatever images you can find near the location of the event, take a screencap and save the image (you will upload to Canvas).
Using the information in the other columns, write 3-4 sentences in plain English about: a) the conflict in which that event took place; b) the violent event itself, just describe what exactly happened (as best as you can tell: who did what to whom, and why).
Based on the images you captured, very briefly describe what you’re seeing in the image. What do you see? What does it look like?
Afghanistan is famously known for having a “fighting season”, in which combat is typically heaviest in a particular time of the year.
Count the number of violent events that took place in Afghanistan per month (grouped summary count). Note: You can use the
idcolumn to count the events. Make a barplot/chartplot/bar chart/column chart of the result and save it as an image to upload (plot).Look up the Afghanistan fighting season on Wikipedia, read about it, and compare your results to what you see on the barplot/bar chart/column chart in 2-3 sentences.
Finally, looking at the whole dataset (not just Afghanistan):
The UCDP categorizes violent events into three violent event types. Look them up: what are those three types? What does each mean?
Calculate the average number of deaths in a violent event (using the “best” estimate variable), per type of violent event (grouped summary statistics). Which type of violent event produces the most deaths, on average?
Calculate the maximum number of deaths in a violent event (using “best” estimate) per country (grouped summary statistics). In which country were the most deaths recorded in a single violent event?