Covid-19 Mapping with Microsoft Power BI

Abstract

The purpose of the map and dashboard is twofold. First, Microsoft’s Power BI software presents a reasonably easy means by which many can make reasonably robust data visualizations with minimal expertise in mapping and programming languages. Unlike some competing data visualization and online mapping software packages that require specialized software or skills, ordinary citizens and students, new to data collection and management can create an appealing dashboard-style presentation within a few minutes with minimal guidance. Familiarity with the function and logic of spreadsheet software seems to be the only prerequisite. Many businesses, colleges, and universities already provide access to the Microsoft Office suite of software, further extending the appeal of using Power BI. The COVID-19 dashboard featuring case data by date, city, county, and / or neighborhood in Southern California was created in less than one-half hour using a connection to publicly available data shared by the Los Angeles Times via GitHub. The map allows visitors to select individual communities from a map, which prompts dynamically linked graphs and tables to display data for only that community. The second purpose of this dashboard is to allow users to rapidly analyze local data trends, perhaps following school openings / closings, changes in the status of businesses, or social protests movements. Epidemiologists have expressed concern over the effects of the protest marches and untimely changes in rules regarding businesses and schools on COVID-19 rates. Compounding the need for such a map are concerns about differential COVID-19 infection rates in communities of color, whose citizens were already at an elevated risk of death from COVID-19. This map and dashboard demonstrates that these concerns were not unfounded.

A review of GIS methodologies to analyze the dynamics of COVID‐19 in the second half of 2020

“…WebGIS platforms for the dissemination of information to the public and data accessibility have already been addressed in other previous works (Boulos & Geraghty, 2020 ; Franch‐Pardo et al., 2020 ; Koller et al., 2020 ; Zúñiga et al., 2020 ). Some papers explain the technical operations of the web platform (Ghilardi et al., 2020 ; Graves & He, 2020 ; Hohl, Delmelle, Desjardins, & Lan, 2020 ; Mooney et al., 2020 ; Peddireddy et al., 2020 ; Sarfo & Karuppannan, 2020 ). Here we present a specific example in Mexico and briefly explain the operation of the university‐based platform maintained by the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( https://covid19.ciga.unam.mx/ ).…”

“…The spatial analysis of COVID‐19 also highlights important advances in technology for spatial and geographical science research, for example, the development and consolidation of new spatial analysis software such as GeoMEDD (Curtis et al., 2020 ) and OSMnx (Boeing, 2020 ); new models for risk estimation (Chatterjee et al., 2020 ; Mobaied, 2020 ; O'Sullivan et al., 2020 ; Sun, Di, et al., 2020 ); algorithms for the management of spatial big data (Buscema et al., 2020 ; Fang et al., 2020 ; Li, Li, et al., 2020 ; Shah & Patel, 2020 ); new clustering techniques and automated spatial statistics (Curtis et al., 2020 ; Fang et al., 2020 ; Melin et al., 2020 ); effective new forms of COVID‐19 mapping on the web (Ghilardi et al., 2020 ; Graves & He, 2020 ; Maharjan et al., 2020 ); novel UAV applications (Okyere et al., 2020 ; Sahraoui, Korichi, Kerrache, Bilal, & Amadeo, 2020 ); and utilization of VGI (Hohl et al., 2020 ; Rossman et al., 2020 ; Yoneoka et al., 2020 ), among others.…”