Overview

1 Introduction

Dr. Josh Taylor (left) and Dr. David Conner (right) at the FSRC Sustainability Metrics workshop in 2024. Photo by Colleen Goodhue, FSRC.

Dr. Josh Taylor (left) and Dr. David Conner (right) at the FSRC Sustainability Metrics workshop in 2024. Photo by Colleen Goodhue, FSRC.

The original framework of dimensions, indices, and indicators representing food system sustainability was developed through a transdisciplinary team science process described in detail by Wiltshire et al. (2024). The figure below shows the structure of this collaborative process.

As the project progressed, a collection of new indicators were proposed across all dimensions, yielding a total of 135 indicators. This full set of indicators is shown in Section 2. Starting in July of 2024, the FSRC has been using a collaborative and transparent process to reduce the number of indicators to manageable amount that can comprehensively represent the food system while being tractable enough to be interpretable and actionable.

More information about this refinement process can be found in the Indicator Refinement pages, including results from surveys on indicator and index importance. Subsequent analyses in the Refined Framework Analysis use this reduce set of indicators. The selection of metrics to represent those indicators is tentative. For now, we are using a larger set of metrics than might be otherwise ideal to give us flexibility to explore which best represent the system and what the consequences are given different numbers and configurations of metrics.

Team science process diagram showing the progression from concept papers and backgroundf research to concept paper synthesis meetings to framework refinement, breakout groups for each dimnension, and breakout group synthesis, followed by collaborative drafting of a narrative document and manuscript.
Team science diagram from Wiltshire et al., 2024.

2 Framework Overview

Below is a diagram of all 135 indicators in the framework as of July, 2024. Colors represent dimensions, and splits occur at the dimension and index level. See the table in Section 3 for a more detailed look at indicators.

Code 
## Load packages
pacman::p_load(
  ggraph,
  igraph,
  dplyr,
  RColorBrewer,
  viridisLite
)


## Load data and add an origin level
dat <- readRDS('data/trees/tree_dat.rds') %>% 
  mutate(Framework = 'Sustainability') %>% 
  select(Framework, Dimension:Indicator)


## Make edges
# include groupings by dimension, then combine them
edges <- list()
edges$sm_dim <- dat %>% 
  select(Framework, Dimension) %>% 
  unique() %>% 
  rename(from = Framework, to = Dimension) %>% 
  mutate(group = to)
edges$dim_ind <- dat %>% 
  select(Dimension, Index) %>% 
  unique() %>% 
  rename(from = Dimension, to = Index) %>% 
  mutate(group = from)
edges$ind_ind <- dat %>% 
  select(Index, Indicator) %>% 
  unique() %>% 
  rename(from = Index, to = Indicator) %>% 
  mutate(group = edges$dim_ind$from[match(.$from, edges$dim_ind$to)])
edges <- bind_rows(edges)


## Make vertices
# Each line is a single vertex (dimension, index, or indicator)
# We are just giving them random values to control point size for now
vertices = data.frame(
  name = unique(c(as.character(edges$from), as.character(edges$to))) , 
  value = runif(nrow(edges) + 1)
) 

# Add the dimension groupings to the vertices as well
vertices$group = edges$group[match(vertices$name, edges$to)]

# Calculate the angles to arrange indicator labels
vertices$id = NA
myleaves = which(is.na(match(vertices$name, edges$from)))
nleaves = length(myleaves)
vertices$id[myleaves] = seq(1:nleaves)
vertices$angle = 90 - 360 * vertices$id / nleaves

# Calculate alignment of indicator labels
vertices$hjust <- ifelse(vertices$angle < -90, 1, 0)

# Flip label angles around 180 degrees if they are facing the wrong way
vertices$angle <- ifelse(vertices$angle < -90, vertices$angle + 180, vertices$angle)


## Create graph
# Make ggraph object from edges and vertices
graph <- graph_from_data_frame(edges, vertices = vertices)

# Plot the graph
ggraph(graph, layout = 'dendrogram', circular = TRUE) +
  
  # Color edges by dimension
  geom_edge_diagonal(aes(color = group), width = 0.5) +
  
  # Create text for indicators using angles, hjust, and dimension groupings
  geom_node_text(
    aes(
      x = x * 1.04,
      y = y * 1.04,
      filter = leaf,
      label = name,
      angle = angle,
      hjust = hjust,
      colour = group
    ),
    size = 2.7,
    alpha = 1
  ) +
  
  # Make the points for indicators based on dimension groupings
  # geom_node_point(aes(
  #   filter = leaf,
  #   x = x * 1.07,
  #   y = y * 1.07,
  #   colour = group,
  #   size = value,
  #   alpha = 0.2
  # )) +
  
  # Label the dimensions within the graph
  geom_node_label(
    aes(label = ifelse(name == group, name, NA)),
    label.padding = unit(0.2, "lines"),
    label.r = unit(0.3, "lines"),
    label.size = 0.1,
    size = 3
  ) +
  
  # Various formatting options
  scale_colour_manual(values = brewer.pal(5, 'Set1')) +
  scale_edge_color_manual(values = brewer.pal(5, 'Set1')) +
  scale_size_continuous(range = c(0.1, 7)) +
  theme_void() +
  theme(
    legend.position = "none",
    plot.margin = unit(c(0, 0, 0, 0), "cm")
  ) +
  expand_limits(x = c(-2, 2), y = c(-2, 2))

Radial dendrogram of Sustainability Metrics framework showing sustainability in the middle, splitting into economic, environment, social, production, and health dimensions, each splitting into a set of indicators.

Radial dendrogram of Sustainability Metrics framework

3 Full Indicator Table

Below is an interactive table with the full set of 135 indicators from July of 2024. You can search, filter, and page through the table, and download the filtered set of data as a .csv file using the download button.

Code 
pacman::p_load(
  dplyr,
  reactable,
  stringr,
  htmltools
)

# Load framework data as a tree
tree <- readRDS('data/trees/tree_dat.rds')

# Load custom reactable table function
source('dev/get_reactable.R')

# Pick out variables to display
dat <- tree %>% 
  select(-c(tooltip, count_))

# Make reactable table
htmltools::browsable(
  tagList(
    tags$div(
      style = "display: flex; margin-bottom: 20px; justify-content: center;",
      tags$button(
          class = "btn btn-primary",
          style = "display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 8px; padding: 8px 12px;",
          tagList(fontawesome::fa("download"), "Download as CSV"),
          onclick = "Reactable.downloadDataCSV('indicator_table', 'indicator_framework.csv')"
      )
    ),
    get_reactable(
      dat,
      elementId = "indicator_table",
      columns = list(
        Dimension = colDef(minWidth = 75),
        Index = colDef(minWidth = 100),
        Indicator = colDef(minWidth = 200)
      )
    )
  )
)
Back to top

References

Wiltshire, Serge, Brian Beckage, Chris Callahan, Lisa Chase, David Conner, Heather Darby, Jane Kolodinsky, et al. 2024. “Regional Food System Sustainability: Using Team Science to Develop an Indicator-Based Assessment Framework.” Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 14 (1): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2024.141.011.