ArcGIS Insights: Another Example

ENV 859 - Geospatial Data Analytics   |   Fall 2025   |   Instructor: John Fay  

Introduction

This lesson provides an additional tutorial on using Insights.

Getting Started

Accessing the Insights App

Insights is an on-line app. (There is a desktop version, but the on-line one is more fully developed.) Here’s how you access it.

  1. Sign in to your Duke University AGOL account: https://dukeuniv.maps.arcgis.com.
  2. From the apps dropdown menu - the square of 3 x 3 dots in the upper right corner of the page - select Insights.
    • If you don’t see Insights in the menu of options, let me know. It means the app has not yet been enabled for your account.
    • Alternatively, you can navigate to https://insights.arcgis.com,

The Insights Home page

When you open Insights, you are presented with the Insights Home page. It’s here where you can create, open, and manage content in your Insights workspace. On the left side is a menu to navigate to various types of content, briefly explained below. And in the main window are content items you’ve created as well as other items either you or ESRI has tagged to get your attention. Note that all content items are stored in your AGOL account, and thus you can organize these items in folders and sub folders

Here is a quick listing of the types of content you can create using Insights:

  • Workbooks: These are the main content items you will likely work with. Workbooks contain links to data as well as visualizations you’ve constructed from these data. We will take a much deeper look into workbooks shortly.
  • Models: A model is a record of the steps used to process your raw data, quite like geoprocessing models in ArcGIS Pro.
  • Datasets: This provides access to all the items stored in your AGOL account and is a useful way to create a workbook with the selected dataset added.
  • Connections: Here you can create connections to cloud-based drives (e.g. OneDrive, SharePoint) or to database management applications that are external to AGOL. (We won’t be dealing with these in this tutorial…)
  • Reports: A report is a snapshot of a workbook when it was published. You can view and manage those here.
  • Themes: A theme saves page settings from a given workbook so that you can apply them to other workbooks. You can view and manage those here.

:point_right: More information on the home page can be found here: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/insights/latest/get-started/home-page.htm

Creating a new Workbook & adding data

As mentioned above, the workbook is the featured item in ArcGIS Insights, so let’s examine how to create one.

  1. Select Workbook form the left hand menu on the home page.
  2. Click the New workbook button. (If this button does not exist, contact me as you likely don’t yet have access to Insights, which I can fix).
  3. Use the dialog that appears to add data to your workbook:
    • Select “Living Atlas” under the connection section to access items in ESRI’s Living Atlas.
    • Search for “SVI” to locate Social Vulnerability Index related datasets.
    • Hover over the results to reveal more information about each or click the :information_source: for even more information.
    • Check the circle to the left of the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability 2020 Index feature layer to reveal selectable layers from that set of feature layers.
    • Check only the “SVI_US_County” layer (the first one) and click Add.
  4. You should now have an Untitled Workbook with the one data layer and one “card” showing a map of the features.
  5. Rename your workbook to “My First Insights Workbook” by clicking the existing name (“Untitled Workbook”) at the top of the page.
  6. Click the :floppy_disk: icon to save your workbook to your AGOL account.

The Workbook interface

  • At the top of the workbook is the tool bar. Hover over each tool to see what it does. Some items are intuitive; others will make more sense later.
  • On the left is the listing of the datasets added to your workbook.
    • Click the triangle to reveal the list of fields associated with your dataset.
    • The icons to the left of each field indicate the default data type assigned to that field.
      :point_right: Can you interpret each icon?
  • The main area of your workbook is your canvas. Items in the canvas are called cards.
    • Click the top of your one existing card to reveal the tools associated with the card.
    • Find and click the “Flip Card” tool to see (and edit) information about this card.
  • Create new cards by selecting one or more fields into the canvas
    • The options presented are base on the type of field(s) you chose.
  • In the lower right corner of your card, click the “Action Button” - the blue circle with a swooshing arrow
    • This reveals some analyses you can do with your data

Take some time to play around with this dataset and the various cards generated. Many of the tools have an intuitive feel, which is a nice feature of Insights.

Objective: Explore spatio-temporal patterns of malaria cases occurring in Loreto, Pero

We have been provided a dataset of malaria cases in the state of Loreto, Peru. While these are actual data obtained by a Peruvian health agency, you should not use these data beyond this demonstration as they have not been approved for analysis – and I’ve guessed/altered a few of the attributes. The two files we’ll use have already been added to ArcGIS Online and shared with the ENV859_2022 group. They are:

  • Loreto_Malara_Data” (LINK): a table of malaria case counts, tagged by date on and the district in which it was recorded, as well as a few climatic variables corresponding to that date and location. (NOTE: These data should not be used in an actual analysis; they are for demonstration purposes only.) Explore these datasets and note the columns included.
  • Loreto (LINK): a feature layer showing the district boundaries for the Loreto province

1. Creating a new workbook and adding data

  1. Create a new workbook.

  2. Add the Loreto Malaria Data dataset

    • Open the Add Data dialog.
    • Set to search the Duke University connection, setting the subunit to My organization.
    • Search for Loreto Malaria.
    • Add both the Loreto_Malaria_Data and Loreto datasets to your workbook.

  3. Rename your workbook: <netID> Malaria Analysis - Fall 2023 (replacing <netID> with your Duke NetID).

    :point_right: All items in an organization’s AGOL portal have to have a unique name…

  4. Save your workbook, which should have two datasets and one card displayed.

2. Exploring the data

2.1 Data Types

Exploration of a dataset should begin with examining how data were imported into the analytical environment. In particular, it’s important to note what data types are assigned to each column as that can affect how those values can be analyzed.

  • Familiarize yourself with the structure of the data
    • Click the triangle next to the Loreto_malaria_data dataset name to expose the fields and their assigned data types
    • Which fields appear as categories? as numeric? as dates?
    • Which fields, if any, are assigned an incorrect data type?
  • Fix the data type for Ecoregion, setting it to be a category, not a value.
    The ecoregion field contains a code indicating which ecoregion the district falls within. While the values are numeric, the numbers reflect names, not values, so we should recode this variable as a categorical, or “string” variable.
    • Click on the data type icon and set to String
  • Fix the data type for nfalciparum, setting it to numeric. (A bit more challenging…)
    • View the table for the dataset by clicking the ellipses (...) next to the dataset name and selecting “View Data Table”
    • Click on + Field to add a new field
    • Rename the field Falciparum
    • Set the formula to be VALUE(nfalciparum) and run the calculation
  • Repeat for nvivax
  • View the worksheet in Analysis View

2.2 Visualize temporal patterns your data

  • Close the map card on your workbook (if displayed), making space for a new one

  • Q: What is the distribution of N. falciparum case counts in our dataset?

    → Answer with a histogram of N. falciparum

    • Drag the calculated Falciparum field into the workspace, and drop it onto the Chart>Histogram box that appears
    • How does our distribution appear?
      • Heavily skewed toward zero
      • One count very, very high! An outlier??
    • Flip the card to view stats of the distribution
    • Rename this card to “Distribution of falciparum counts” and save your workbook

  • Q: How have cases of falciparum changed over time?

    → Answer with a line plot, setting the X axis to years:

    • Select both the Date and the Falciparum fields, and then drag them into the workspace
    • Select Time series as the type of plot
    • Do you see any trends over time? Any major peaks or extended dips?

  • Q: Do trends in cases follow a similar pattern to climatic variables?

    → Answer by adding variables to your time series plot:

    • Drag rainMM onto your plot; do you see a trend?

      → This isn’t a great way to compare trends because both value rely on the same y-scale…

    → Answer by building a new line plot:

    • Select Year and Falciparium and drag into the workspace, creating a line graph
    • Drag rainMM on top of the plot, noting that it will add as a Combo plot
    • Change the rainMM variable from bars to a line

    → It might make sense to filter out years with incomplete records…

    • Click the funnel icon next to the Year field
    • Deselect 2019 and 2020 to remove those records from your analysis

  • Q: Are trends in cases similar across the different districts in Loreto?

    → Answer by showing a different trendline for each district:

    • Remove the rainMM item from your line plot
    • Click on the X-axes of your line plot so that the SubGroup by option appears
    • Select district as the grouping variable
    • Can you interpret the results? It’s a bit busy…

    → Add a filter to your workbook:

    • Click the Widgets button in the upper right
    • Select Predefined Filter
    • Add a new filter, selecting district as the field
    • Rename the filter “District”

  • Q: Are there seasonal trends in cases within each year?

    • Answer by plotting cases by month (or epiweek) as a bar plot
    • Change to a box plot to see whether it conveys information more effectively
    • Create a data clock: Select Year, Month, and Falciparum…

2.3 Visualize spatial patterns in the data

  • Create a new page for your spatial explorations
    • Add a new page (click the + at the bottom tab), and close the dialog to add new data
    • Navigate back to Page 1 and drag the Loreto_malaria_data and Loreto datasets to the Page 2 tab
    • Open Page 2
  • Adding location to the records in the Loreto_malaria_data:
    • Click the button on the top button bar for Create Relationships
    • Add the Loreto dataset to the dialog, then the Loreto_malaria_data dataset
    • Select the join fields: NOMBDIST <-> and district
    • Click Finish and a new dataset will be added to your page
  • Create a map of your data

    • Expand the attributes of your newly derived dataset

    • Drag the location attribute to the workspace and select Map

    • Drag another attribute, e.g. Population onto the map and the map will show that value
    • There are other means to alter the field shown on the map and how it’s displayed…
    • You can also change the base map of your data
  • Add a filter and link it to your map
    • Add Years as a table to your map
  • Add a second map and sync it to your map
  • Add a scatter plot
  • Explore spatial selections

3. Sharing