Mapping Flow Data

Aileen Buckley, PhD

Esri - Redlands

• Flow maps - show the movement of some phenomenon,

normally goods or people, from one place to another.

Lines are used to symbolize the flow, typically varied in

width to represent differences in the quantity of the flow

Flow Maps

http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2011/09/06/creating-radial-flow-maps-with-arcgis/

• Network flow maps - show interconnectivity between

places and are usually based on transportation or

communication linkages

• Radial flow maps - have a spoke-like pattern because the

features and places are mapped in nodal form with one

place being a common origin or destination

• Distributive flow maps - show the distribution of

commodities or some other flow that diffuses from one or

only a few origins to multiple destinations

• (Point) vector flow maps – show phenomena that change

continuously and smoothly over space and time using

Euclidean vectors (point locations with magnitude and

direction)

Types of flow maps

http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2011/09/06/creating-radial-flow-maps-with-arcgis/

Network FlowHighway Traffic in Oregon

Atlas of Oregon, 2001, page 106

Atlas of Oregon, 2001, page 106

Radial FlowTravel by Facebook Users

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbruner/2012/06/05/four-facebook-visualizations-that-illustrate-the-

social-networks-reach-and-diversity

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbruner/2012/06/05/four-facebook-visualizations-that-illustrate-the-

social-networks-reach-and-diversity/

Distributive FlowBritish Coal Exports - Minard

http://norsemathology.org/longa/tufte/Cartographia.htm

Distributive FlowBritish Coal Exports - Esri

http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=3bb350838ee044979d1f583b116cb8c1

(Point) Vector FlowQSCAT High-Resolution Hurricane Analysis

http://www.cora.nwra.com/~morzel/qscat.hurricane.hires.html

Animated DisplaysWind Map During Hurricane Sandy

http://hint.fm/wind/

Animated DisplaysEuropean Airspace Returning to Use After Iceland Volcano Eruption, 2010

http://vimeo.com/11205494

Distributive FlowRiver Flow - http://demox/demotest/demo.cfm?demo_id=537

http://maps.esri.com/sldemos/flow/default.html