Bee-yond Borders

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About the map

This map shows an aggregated view of bee survey data across Great Britain from 2009 to 2024, focusing on bumblebees (Bombus) and honeybees (Apis), both of which play a vital role in pollination.

The data was collected by volunteers through the BeeWalk survey, aiming to better understand the abundance and distribution of these species.

The BeeWalk survey tends to have more records from areas with larger human populations, such as South Wales, and the Scottish central belt, while regions like East Anglia, mid Wales, and north-west Scotland are under-represented. This doesn't mean there are no bees in these areas!

Why it works

The time slider allows users to visualise changes in bee populations over time, providing a dynamic and interactive experience.

The hexagons are particularly effective, as they resemble beehives and create a thematic connection. The colours used in the map are reminiscent of honey, enhancing the overall aesthetic.

Additionally, using Arcade to create visually appealing pop-ups helps extract relevant data, making the information easy to understand and relevant.

Important Steps

  • 1.

    Use the Generate Tesselation tool (transverse hexagon) using Albers Equal-Area Conic spatial reference to create HexBins that look like honeycomb.

  • 2.

    Prepare your data. Use ModelBuilder in ArcGIS Pro to sort, summarise and join your data to the HexBins.

  • 3.

    Use colours, gradients, and transparency to visually differentiate between various data points, highlight trends over time, and create a more engaging and intuitive user experience.

  • 4.

    Publish your data to ArcGIS Online and use the ArcGIS Instant Apps Slider template to filter your data over time.

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Requirements

  • Data and software

    BeeWalk survey data was processed in ArcGIS Pro (tessellation, sorting, symbology). The map was then uploaded to ArcGIS Online, sketch layers added, and the final result published in an Instant App.

  • Analysis

    The following geoprocessing tools were used to sort the data, assign it to the tessellation grid and extract the features we were interested in for the numerous years: Select Layer By Attribute, Spatial Join, Sort, Summary Statistics, Add Join, and Append.

    These were all wrapped up into a ModelBuilder in ArcGIS Pro to Automate the process.

  • Time

    Most time was spent sorting data (with some trial and error in ModelBuilder!). After that, symbology was created and uploaded to ArcGIS Online. Creating an Instant App was relatively fast.

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Tips and tricks

  • ModelBuilder

    If you need to use numerous geoprocessing tools to process or analyse your data, use ModelBuilder in ArcGIS Pro to automate this.

  • Sketch Layers

    Use multiple sketch layers with different visibility ranges in ArcGIS Online Map Viewer. In this map, bees flying around can be seen at different map scales without their size changing too much.

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Links & Resources

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Amy Bicknell-Brown

Map Author

Amy Bicknell-Brown (She/Her)

Amy is a Graduate GIS Consultant at Esri UK. Outside of work she loves hiking, cooking and her two cats.

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