Alluvial diagram
Encyclopedia
Alluvial diagrams are a type of flow diagram
originally developed to represent changes in network structure over time.
In allusion to both their visual appearance and their emphasis on flow, alluvial diagrams are named after alluvial fans
that are
naturally formed by the soil deposited from streaming water.
. They can be used to visualize any type of change in group composition between states or over time and include statistical information to reveal significant change.
Alluvial diagrams highlight important structural changes that can be further emphasized by color, and make identification of major transitions easy.
Alluvial diagrams can also be used to illustrate patterns of flow on a fixed network over time. The Visitors Flow feature of Google Analytics uses alluvial diagrams to graphically represent how visitors move among the nodes (individual pages) on a web sites.
Flow diagram
Flow diagram may refer to:* Alluvial diagram, highlights and summarizes the significant structural changes in networks* Flowchart, schematic representation of a process which can give a step-by-step solution to a given problem....
originally developed to represent changes in network structure over time.
In allusion to both their visual appearance and their emphasis on flow, alluvial diagrams are named after alluvial fans
Alluvial fan
An alluvial fan is a fan-shaped deposit formed where a fast flowing stream flattens, slows, and spreads typically at the exit of a canyon onto a flatter plain. A convergence of neighboring alluvial fans into a single apron of deposits against a slope is called a bajada, or compound alluvial...
that are
naturally formed by the soil deposited from streaming water.
Interpretation
In an alluvial diagram, blocks represent clusters of nodes, and stream fields between the blocks represent changes in the composition of these clusters over time. The height of a block represents the size of the cluster and the height of a stream field represents the size of the components contained in both blocks connected by the stream field.Application
Alluvial diagrams were originally developed to visualize structural change in large complex networksComplex network
In the context of network theory, a complex network is a graph with non-trivial topological features—features that do not occur in simple networks such as lattices or random graphs but often occur in real graphs...
. They can be used to visualize any type of change in group composition between states or over time and include statistical information to reveal significant change.
Alluvial diagrams highlight important structural changes that can be further emphasized by color, and make identification of major transitions easy.
Alluvial diagrams can also be used to illustrate patterns of flow on a fixed network over time. The Visitors Flow feature of Google Analytics uses alluvial diagrams to graphically represent how visitors move among the nodes (individual pages) on a web sites.
External links
- Alluvial generator implemented in Flash - Create alluvial diagrams from network data and export to PDF
- Visitors Flow for Google Analytics