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.
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Louise Kavanagh
Director
Apogee Data Consulting Ltd
Tenterden
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