Integrating SAP Lumira and ESRI Mapping

I recently recreated what is considered one of the 5 most influential data visualisations of all time using SAP Lumira, The Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East by Florence Nightingale. Read the blog article on data visualisation

To continue this theme I was inspired to try out another one of the top 5 that requires visualising data at a street level based on Longitude and Latitude coordinates. SAP Lumira has allowed plotting data on basic map outlines using Longitude and Latitude coordinates for some time but not at street level like we are used to using in say Google Maps.

However, in the most recent version of SAP Lumira 1.17 this has changed as SAP has announced a partnership with ESRI, enabling integration of their AecGIS online service within SAP Lumira.

Press Release: SAP and Esri Team Up for Geo-Spatial Analytic Innovations at #EsriUC with SAP Lumira and ArcGIS – See more

Another one of the Top 5 most influential visualisations of all time:

John Snow’s Map of the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak.

 

Just to get things straight from the outset, I am talking about John Snow the Physician not John Snow from House Stark in the Game of Thrones

  

 

John Snow’s original Cholera Map

On the 8th September 1854, on the instruction of Dr John Snow, the handle to the water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick Street) in Soho London was removed. Snow identified that the water from this pump was the source of an outbreak of cholera that ravaged Soho, killing over 500 over the previous weeks.

Snow’s work was ground breaking for its use of data visualisation where he plotted the locations of all the deaths in the cholera epidemic on a map and identified that they clustered around water pumps and particularly around the pump in Broad Street.  More Information

Recreation using SAP Lumira and ESRI ArcGIS

How To

After a bit of searching I found a dataset that gave the Longitude/Latitude reference of each house surveyed by Snow along with the count of deceased by Cholera. Additionally, there was a similar data file giving the points of each water pump in the locality.

I thought the challenge in this endeavour would be integrating SAP Lumira with ESRI, this was in fact the easiest part.  All that is needed was to sign up for trial access of ESRI ArcGIS and enter the resulting credentials in the SAP Lumira Preferences pane. (Links below)

However, I must admit to doing a fair amount of manipulation in Microsoft Excel to get the combined Longitude/Latitude field into two separate data columns that Lumira will acquire formatted as a Number. SAP Lumira could have split out the combined field into two easily but when creating a geographical hierarchy based on Longitude/Latitude these fields need to be a number data type and sadly the inbuilt convert function had issues.

 Step 1

Acquire the dataset into Lumira and create a geographic hierarchy on the location name using the Longitude/Latitude.

 Step 2

Sign up for a free 30 day trail of ESRI ArGIS using the link in the Lumira preferences panel and enter the resulting user credentials

Step 3

Build a visualisation in the using the new  Geographic map.

 Step 4

Configure the Layer. Note “Count” is used twice, in SIZE sect the measure, in COLOR use the dimension

 

The finished article:

 

In closing

Be aware there is no Lumira cloud integration for ESRI mapping at this time.  Also, I’m not an ESRI customer so I am unaware of ESRI licensing costs to use ArcGIS.

And one more thing..

If you visit London why not be a data visualisation tourist and visit the John Snow Pub on Broadwick Street and see the water pump

 

LINKS:

• The 5 Most Influential Visualisations of All Time
• http://www.datasciencecentral.com/video/the-5-most-influential-visualizations-of-all-time-1