160 likes | 170 Views
Weighted Flow graphs for statistics. Edwin de Jonge NTTS February 2009. Statistics and flows. Many official statistics are flow data Demography Migration International trade But also balance systems: System of National Accounts (SNA) Energy balance. Statistics and visualisation.
E N D
Weighted Flow graphs for statistics Edwin de Jonge NTTS February 2009
Statistics and flows • Many official statistics are flow data • Demography • Migration • International trade But also balance systems: • System of National Accounts (SNA) • Energy balance
Statistics and visualisation • Visualisation exploits visual system to: • Reveal and highlight patterns in data(trends, correlation, distribution) • Most common visualisations • line and bar charts • scatter and bubble plots • Cartographic choropleth
Flow visualization • Many official statistics are flow data • But not presented as flows! • Flow diagram is weighted directed graph • G = (V,E,w) • Not many visualisation research for weighted directed graphs
Flow visualisation (2) Options • Standard node and edge visualisation • Not real option: does not encode the weights (= data) • Sankey diagrams • Very good for energy statistics etc.! • Cartographic flows • Arrows on a cartographic map
Cartographic flows • Flow maps: • Many are hand made • Flow routing is hard • Number of flows is limited to 50 • Most are unidirectional Computer generated cartographic flow layout is still scarce
Experiment: large flow map • Most statistical datasets are large! • Experiment to visualise • Thousands of flows, that are bidirectional, every flow may have a counter flow • It should: • give overview of all flows • show main flows • reveal flow patterns
Experiment: Internal migration • Migration between 459 municipalities in the Netherlands • Migration is matrix M(i,j) i, j = 1..N • mij= migration from i to j • Large number of flows and bidirectional
Experiment: Internal migration • Data summary: • 60,000 movements (of the 210,000) • Mean = 10, Max = 2880, Median = 2 = Skewed! • Technology: • Google Earth, KML file • Generate arrows as polygons in KML
Naïve implementation • Too many arrows • Visual clutter: • no overview • no main flows • no flow patterns
Visual encoding • Use visual encoding to reduce clutter • Arrow • Width: logarithmic scale • Encodes size of flows • Transparency: logarithmic scale • Reduces visual clutter • Height: linear scale • Focus on main flows
User interaction / Results • Use user interaction to filter data • user can select regions (no flows) Results • Clear overview of overall flows • Main flows are visible • Non local flows are also visible • But no other patterns!
Discussion • Result is ok, but should be further improved • Better user interaction • GE user interaction very limited • Select and filter for flows • Reveal patterns in flow data • Use cluster techniques to group flows • User cluster techniques to group regions