Decision-Making Support

Abstract

Nowadays, managers and policymakers are overwhelmed by the volume of information coming from databases and the Internet. The ability to zero in on significant data and form reliable information sources is even more difficult. Choosing, collecting, analyzing, and managing data about global problems such as carbon emissions, earthquake warnings, climate change, or pandemics, for example, is no easy task. In addition, the wasted amount of data available from different kinds of sources make the job of interpreting events and anticipating changes more complicated still. Business managers, analysts, and policymakers need to deal with this issue by looking to new tools or models that were not available until now. This article explores how modern data and network visualization methods can help policymakers understand an ongoing situation in a relatively short time, as well as help predict future events by interacting with it. Examples of interactive visualization and network analysis are discussed.