ArcGIS Map is the spatial analysis platform developed by Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute) which provides tools and services for creating, managing, analyzing, and sharing geographic information in the form of maps.
Power BI has integrated with ArcGIS map to enhance geospatial visualization in business intelligence reports. Now users can create interactive maps and gain deeper insights from the data. Let’s discuss about this map in this blog in detail.
How to Proceed?
Step 1
Launch power BI desktop app and open the new report page and import the data required.
Step 2
In “visualizations” pane click on “ArcGIS Map” which is highlighted in the given figure.
Prerequisites
When I click ArcGIS visual for the first time, I will get “Sign in “dialog box to proceed with the visual.
For this demo I have created a trial ArcGIS online account. If we use paid account, we can have additional features. For creating basic ArcGIS map, I used this trial version. We can also use standard version of ArcGIS for power BI for trying ArcGIS map.
Step 3
Location: Specifies information that defines geographic locations that includes city names, country/region names, Postal codes to be displayed on the map – Region.
Latitude and Longitude are the coordinates values which locate a specific location. Here we don’t have any coordinates value
Size: Size of the data points showing in map based on the data – Count of Medal
Color: Color of the Datapoints showing in map based on the data – Count of Medal
Tooltips: add more information to the visual
Step 4
Customizing the appearance
You can customize the appearance of the Map visual. Click anywhere on the visual and set the properties in the Format section.
Layers
We can customize the Layers title and its position under formatting section.
Layers list is visible in this visual by default. It represents collection of additional information that can be visualized on the base map and it is for organizing and displaying the geographical data within the map.
By clicking on the Three dots, we have list of layer option.
Symbology: This layer allows users to symbolize their data i.e., how individual points can be represented on the map from the default styles like heatmaps etc.,
Heatmaps usually represent the intensity of the data density
Clustering: This layer groups nearby data to avoid cluttering which has too many individual markers.
Location Type: In this layer location type enhance the accuracy of location representation on the map, users can define the location type for different geographic entities.
Labelling: It represents the data labels of the data points in the map
Map Tools:
We can customize the Zoom options, base Maps settings and Infographic card position can be set to left or right.
Infographics is the option under the three-dot menu where we can add the Infographic card in the visual
Location Type and Search
Select Locations
Click Selection tool to expand the toolset where we have different types of options to select the location on the map
Single select: Default selection tool to select the particular location point
Like this we have Rectangle, circle, polygon, freehand polygon options to select the location.
Click on the search icon. This option is to pin a specific location or address to the base map. we cannot save pinned location to the map it only remains active during the current session.
Reference layer
In this layer we can add additional information or data about the location of the map. In this e.g.
We have this map based on region, here in reference layer we can add additional context of data like
“Historical places near this region”,” Best schools in the region” etc. This will give users bigger picture of the data.
Infographic card
It provides more information about the areas mentioned on the map, where we have different demographic information about the place like population, income, age etc. we can add this info as a card in the visual which makes more intuitive.
Buffer/Drive time Using this feature we can find the distance between the location pinned to the area we want to drive. We can also options to set specific distance from the base map location.
Step 5 Save the visual
Finally, your ArcGIS Map is ready. Click save button to save the visual.
When to use ArcGIS Map visual?
Selecting specific type of visual is purely depends on the nature of data and visualization goals, here apart from showing locations in map if we want to add more information to the map and to visualize trends, patterns and custom map visuals, to add real time data to the map in a more interactive manner we can choose ArcGIS map which is really cool.
Pros
- This map has many advanced geospatial analysis capabilities which makes it useful for creating visuals for complex map scenarios
- Customized Options
- Real time data visualization
Cons
- Need more knowledge on advanced features of ArcGIS Map.
- May have performance issues while handling complex datasets
- ArcGIS online dependency for using advanced features.
Conclusion
In conclusion, use the ArcGIS map visual in Power BI when your data has a significant spatial component and when you want to unlock the power of geospatial analysis. It's a valuable tool for creating interactive and informative maps.
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