Voyage Viewer: A Multivariate Visualisation Tool for Migration Analysis

The study of displaced populations is often hampered due to missing, scattered, or incomplete data. Thus, making it harder for researchers, NGOs, policymakers, and migrants to understand the processes of migration and make informed decisions. Recent advances in computational methods and the availability of large-scale datasets provide effective alternatives to analyse, synthesise, and map the mechanics of migrants and displaced populations in a more cost-effective way. However, the study of how humans move around the world remains fragmented across borderlines and limited to specific times in a migrant’s journey, thus unable to provide a complete picture of the migration process. An important step towards realising this goal is to develop tools to combine public data and create visual representations to inform, make decisions and communicate about this highly complex phenomenon. In this chapter, we introduce a new multivariate visualisation tool to advance our understanding of the process of migration, the journeys, and challenges endured by migrants, refugees, and the displaced. The tool, called Voyage Viewer, is a first-of-its-kind open online tool that combines the power of novel and traditional data sources to create a more integral picture of how humans move around the world. By pairing novel data sources with a battery of conventional datasets, Voyage Viewer hopes to revolutionise how we understand, and most importantly, the way we can tackle humanitarian crises caused by forced displacement.