Visualizing Disputed Boundaries
Data Visualization for Public Health in Countries with Disputed Borders
The Graphicacy team recently partnered with the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to visualize vaccine data through a redesign of their VIEW-hub platform. As an international vaccine data portal, VIEW-hub is used by public health practitioners and academics around the world to track key vaccine metrics. With any map-based tool, there are inherent issues that arise in parts of the world where geographic boundaries are contested. Graphicacy was able to partner with our client to design and engineer a solution that created flexibility around particular disputed boundaries, ensuring that the tool is accessible and usable worldwide.
The VIEW-hub tool is a data-rich map based tool that allows quick exports of images, for use within presentations and documents, and to be shared via social media. However, users that reside in countries with disputed borders may have limitations on showing maps with contested borders that disagree with regulations set by their governments. For this project, we encountered a particular issue with the implementation of the map of India, due to the number of disputed borders with Pakistan, China, and Nepal. The VIEW-hub tool is widely used in India to track the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and the rotavirus vaccine. We were committed to ensuring that we delivered a tool that would be acceptable in India to further the extensive vaccination efforts in one of the world’s most populated countries.
The core visualization method used in VIEW-hub is a choropleth map, which inherently requires defined country borders, so countries can be filled with a color representing the values in a data set. To accommodate users in India, and to make sure this important public health resource of vaccine data can be used legally, the Graphicacy information design team created an India-specific version of the VIEW-hub platform using a multi-step design process outlined in the following steps:
From a development point of view, our engineering team used the PostGIS extension of PostgreSQL to clip the boundaries of all the countries intersecting with the updated India boundaries.
As a prerequisite, we loaded the new India boundaries and the admin 0 country boundaries shapefiles into PostGIS. Below is an export of the new India boundaries we used:
Next, using the new India boundaries, we found all countries that intersect from the admin 0 country shapes, excluding the original India shape. As you can see from the export below, this allowed us to define all of the countries around India to chart the differences most effectively.
To generate the shapes we need for the final map, the Graphicacy team needed to identify the overlap between the countries seen above and the disputed India boundaries, as represented in the following:
Once the overlap was subtracted from the surrounding countries, we were able to export the country shapes with our new India boundaries. The resulting GeoJSON is a set of country shapes that fit like puzzle pieces alongside the adjacent country shapes.
The Graphicacy team’s design and engineering process delivered a tool that allows users to zoom into an India-specific map that addresses the political sensitivities of the country’s disputed borders.
Graphicacy partners with clients to tell engaging stories with data. Graphicacy’s team combines storytelling, thoughtful human-centered design and deep technical capabilities to build and deploy strategic, data-rich digital projects. Graphicacy’s team has created data visualizations and infographics for top-tier organizations and companies, domestically and internationally, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the World Bank, the Center for American Progress, the Anti-Defamation League and many others.
