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MapInfo Monday: Temporal Mapping

  • 1.  MapInfo Monday: Temporal Mapping

    Posted 11 days ago

    Today I am looking at the use of the Time-Series feature in MapInfo Pro and how it can be used to create a temporal map.  A temporal map is a map that shows how something changes over time.  This example uses Ofqual GCSE results data and provides the percentage of grades awarded a 7 or above in each English county for the years 2018 to 2022.  The original map was created because my son took his GCSEs in 2022 and also to study whether the teacher assessed grades awarded in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic varied significantly from the years either side.

    The temporal map described in this article uses a thematic map (see my previous article for guidance on this: MapInfo Monday: Thematic Map with Different Ranges | MapInfo Pro to show how a variable (GCSE Results) vary within a region (County) over time.  However, a temporal map can be used to show how anything changes over time, whether that be climate, population, vegetation, etc.  There have been some brilliant examples of temporal mapping of the wildfires in Los Angeles to analyse the spread of the devastation.

    To be able to create a temporal map the MapInfo Pro table must contain at least one field of type; Date, Time or Date/Time.  In this example the field named “Year” had type Date.  If your data doesn’t have a field with one of these types you can use MapBasic functions to convert a number to a Date or Time.

    For the Time-Series to work there are multiple instances of every region for each time period.  Effectively, in this example, five polygons for every county representing separate time periods.  

    To create a temporal map in MapInfo Pro simply add the table containing your data to a map and create a thematic map. 

    In the Map tab go to the Add to Map drop-down menu and select Time Series.

    This will open up the Layer Time Options Dialog:

    In this dialog you will need to select the layer and the configuration, the column that contains the “time” data, apply the time extents and select the time period.  Click OK and your basic temporal map has been created. 

    A contextual tab named “Time” appears which gives you quick access to the different options available to adjust your map.  Among other options you can change the period, the speed and the extent of what the map shows you.  In the Playback group you can play the temporal map and the map will cycle through the time periods.

    Time-Slider

    A “Time-slider” should appear on the map automatically when it is created.  The Time-slider can be pinned to the map (i.e. always visible), moved to the top of the map or removed altogether using the symbols circled below:

    If the Time-slider isn’t pinned to the map it will disappear when the cursor moves away from the map.  If the Time-slider is removed, by selecting the cross, it can be re-instated by clicking on the toggle button in the play-back group of the Time tab:

    The labels on the Time-slider for the time periods for this map in the context of GCSE results don’t really represent what is being displayed on the map.  The time period shown is 01/08/2018 – 01/08/2019 when the data shown is actually the 2018 results.  This can be adjusted in the Map Time Options dialog, which can be accessed from the Time tab:

    In the Time Formatting section I changed the Format String to “y” (Year month pattern) and changed the Format Type to “Use only period start”.

    The map and the Time-slider now look like this:

    Now that the Time-slider is formatted how we want it to be you can click on it to move along to the desired time period.

    Adding information to the map

    Before sharing the temporal map as a gif you will probably want to add some details like a title and a legend, this can be done via the “Add To Map” button on the contextual “Time” tab.

    Add the Period Title to the map, choose your preferred font and click ok, the Period Title appears on the map.  Because we have already formatted the period it appears the same as we set it for the Time-Slider.  It defaults to the top of the map.  However, it can be picked up and moved to wherever you need it in the map window.  Right-clicking on it will bring up the properties where you can also adjust the position or the font.

    You can also “Embed Theme Legend” from the same drop-down menu.  Before you do this you might want to edit the legend title or how the ranges are displayed.  Once it has been added this can also be moved to the desired position.

    If you would like to add a title to the map go to the “Add to Map” drop-down menu on the Map tab (not the Time tab!).

    Choose “Smart Text Adornment”.

    This defaults to add the name of the current window (WIN_INFO_NAME) which is dynamic and will change if you change the name of the map.  In this example I have simply added the text "GCSE Results".  You can change the font and the position of the text within this dialog.  Click Ok and the text appears on the map, the text can be picked up and placed wherever you like.  You can also add any copyright information that may be required or any other text to improve your map.

    Exporting the map as an animated GIF

    Now that your map is complete you can create a GIF file to share.  On the contextual Time tab, select Export.

    Choose the name and location of the gif file.  Select “Generate an animated GIF”. Choose how much delay you require between the images, in this case I chose 1 second and decide if you want to include the Time-slider.

    Here is the final map!

    Happy #MapInfoMonday


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    Louise Kavanagh
    Director
    Apogee Data Consulting Ltd
    Tenterden
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