Abstract

VAZQUEZ-RODRIGUEZ, Romel; PEREZ-RISQUET, Carlos  and  TORRES, Juan Carlos. Exploratory data analysis through the integration of visualization techniques in Geographical Information Systems. Rev. Téc. Ing. Univ. Zulia [online]. 2015, vol.38, n.1, pp.73-82. ISSN 0254-0770.

Exploratory data analysis constitutes a challenge for scientists and analysts of multiples disciplines. Most current methods and tools do not allow for analyzing effectively several variables simultaneously. This paper addresses the problem of visual analysis of temporal sequences of multiple variables using multiparameter visualization techniques in geographical information systems. The concepts and methods developed here were implemented as an extension to gvSIG GIS, thus demonstrating the feasibility of this approach for extracting information and knowledge from the original data. A case study with global climate data containing 9 variables with 1224 monthly records from 1901 to 2002 is exposed. Information is given for the 67,420 cells that correspond to the Earth’s land surface, where each cell occupies an area of 25km by 25km. Also, a module for handling scientific data formats was developed for gvSIG that allow storing all information in compact form for effective reading.

Keywords : Visual data mining; information visualization; geographical information systems.