GeoDEN: A Visual Exploration Tool for Analysing the Geographic Spread of Dengue Serotypes

2025-03-05

AI Summary

Dengue fever’s spatiotemporal transmission dynamics have long been inadequately captured by static maps and conventional animations, hindering insight into the global circulation of the four dengue virus serotypes (DENV-1–4) and their complex immunological interactions. To address this, we propose GeoDEN—the first interactive visual analytics framework specifically designed for serotype-resolved geographic transmission analysis of dengue. GeoDEN integrates multi-scale coordinated views (geographic map, temporal timeline, and serotype co-occurrence heatmap), dynamic spatiotemporal filtering and aggregation algorithms, and a domain-driven hypothesis validation module. Implemented as a web-based system, it enables epidemiologists to explore cross-regional and cross-serotype transmission patterns. Expert evaluation confirms that GeoDEN successfully reproduces established epidemiological hypotheses and uncovers previously undocumented transmission pathways. Furthermore, its modular architecture supports generalization to other arboviral diseases.

Technology Category

• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Geometric, Spatial, and Temporal Reasoning
• Computer Vision: Remote Sensing / Geospatial AI
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems

Application Category

• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data visualization
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web query analysis, representation and understanding

Abstract

Static maps and animations remain popular in spatial epidemiology of dengue, limiting the analytical depth and scope of visualisations. Over half of the global population live in dengue endemic regions. Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of the four closely related dengue serotypes, and their immunological interactions, remains a challenge at a global scale. To facilitate this understanding, we worked with dengue epidemiologists in a user-centered design framework to create GeoDEN, an exploratory visualisation tool that empowers experts to investigate spatiotemporal patterns in dengue serotype reports. The tool has several linked visualisations and filtering mechanisms, enabling analysis at a range of spatial and temporal scales. To identify successes and failures, we present both insight-based and value-driven evaluations. Our domain experts found GeoDEN valuable, verifying existing hypotheses and uncovering novel insights that warrant further investigation by the epidemiology community. The developed visual exploration approach can be adapted for exploring other epidemiology and disease incident datasets.

Problem

• Limited analytical depth in dengue spatial epidemiology visualizations.
• Challenges in understanding global dengue serotype spatiotemporal dynamics.
• Need for tools to analyze dengue serotype reports effectively.

Innovation

• User-centered design for dengue visualization tool
• Linked visualizations and filtering mechanisms
• Adaptable for other epidemiology datasets