This blog post unpacks several considerations for when⚠️ NOT to use Power BI ⚠️ to create public engagement and communication tools. This is based on our recent experience working collaboratively with Charles Sturt University (CSU) to create a custom scripted public-facing online interactive tool to help communicate river and environmental flow data, and fish survey results across the Edward/Kolety-Wakool River system in southern New South Wales.
Read MorePower BI is an amazing tool for processing, modelling, calculating and presenting your data - but it is also a fantastic stakeholder engagement and public communication tool for presenting information to non-technical audiences. This blog post unpacks our ⭐ Top 3 Power BI Tips ⭐ for creating public engagement and communication tools to bring your data to life, and showcases examples from a real-world case study.
Read MoreDisplaying very detailed spatial files using WKT in the Icon Map comes with it’s challenges – the biggest being poor performance (i.e. very slow to render). Some simplification and reduction of precision can go a long way In this video blog I walk through some of my tips to simplify and reduce precision of your spatial files (using free tools such as QGIS and Map Shaper) BEFORE importing into Power BI as a WKT file to really improve rendering speed and avoid exceeding the 32,766 text character limit in Power Query. I hope this helps you have fun exploring maps in Power BI.
Read MoreSometimes we want to display highly detailed spatial files in Power BI using WKT text strings in the Icon Map custom visual… BUT Power Query has a text character limit of 32,766 characters per data point - so what can we do?!? In this video blog I walk through some Power Query and DAX magic to split up our WKT text string and then stitch it back together using CONCATENATEX. I also go over a very frustrating ‘gotcha’ where Power BI removes the lagging spaces in our text string on import (which causes errors in our WKT file) and how to resolve it. I hope this helps you have fun exploring maps in Power BI.
Read MoreIn this blog video I share a universal Power Query script for converting point data from easting/northing to latitude/longitude, which allows us to use this data in our Power BI mapping visuals.
Read MoreDr Jason Hamer (dARTa) presented on The University of Western Australia’s (UWA) data-driven journey to become a sustainable campus. While the focus was on UWA’s internal and external sustainability dashboards, Jason also showcased the backend architecture that makes them possible, provided some amazing Power BI tips and tricks and shared his story and journey towards working with Power BI for the environmental industry..
Read MoreIn this two-part session, we firstly had Peter Schmidt (Maptaskr) presenting on Maptaskr for Geospatial Intelligence, where he demonstrated Maptaskr’s mapping & geo-productivity solution for the Microsoft BizApps platform showcasing how it streamlines business processes, drives operational intelligence and complements Power BI analytics. Next up we had Alice Drummond (DiscoverEI) deep-dive into the world of the ArcGIS mapping visual for Power BI, explaining her tips, tricks and limitations based on real-world experiences with trying to implement the visual in Power BI reports.
Read MoreDredging projects are critical to maintaining or establishing navigational access to ports, waterways and maritime infrastructure. Engagement and reporting to various internal and external stakeholders are required for these unique projects. Dredging project data collection and reporting can be timely and cumbersome. This ‘one stop shop’ Power BI reporting dashboard is used to track and communicate results from dredging projects. The session focused on a range of tech, including: Logic Apps; Azure Functions and SQL; SharePoint Excel files and Power BI aka the hero tool!.
Read MoreSpoil management is an integral part of any construction project. West Gate Tunnel Project provided an opportunity to develop centralised data management system and hence near real-time reporting solution to monitor movement of spoil from one site to another. This Power BI for Enviro’s presentation focused on the Operational Power BI reporting solution for the construction industry emphasizing:
How key business problems can be solved through reporting.
How key stakeholders can make informed decisions to run successful operations.
How time and money can be saved when information is available at hand.
In this digital world where technology is continuing to revolutionize the way we do business, going paperless is becoming more and more common. In his time working as a waste auditor, Simon has learnt from the 'traditional' methods of waste reporting, which often lacks transparency and can be difficult to audit & verify. This led to the creation of Traste, a digital app solution to track waste transparently, bringing waste processing facilities into the 21st century. In this session Simon introduced Traste's waste collection app and the workflow which feeds into a Power BI report. From here the Power BI reports are exported to PDF as this is the preferred method of reviewing the data by the client.
Read MoreAfter a 6-month break we were excited for our June 2023 session return for Power BI 4 Enviro's. This was a joint presentation between DiscoverEI and Alluvium, who supported South East Water (SEW), in developing a Power BI Environmental Sensitivity Mapping (ESM) report, to help SEW identify key sensitivities of both environmental and public health across their region, to help inform risk assessments and incident response.
Read MoreFor our December 2022 session, we were lucky to have Matt Allington (Microsoft MVP Data Platform - Sydney, Australia) joining us again to share his Power BI report presenting streamflow data from the most recent October floods that impacted much of Australia. Matt has been posting daily updates about impacts to the Big Bend region through his YouTube channel, which you can keep up-to-date with on his YouTube channel (Excelerator BI YouTube)
Our thoughts remain with anyone that has been or is being impacted by these devastating floods, especially those within our meetup community❤️ !
Read MoreThis video is part of DiscoverEI's DAX for Enviro's series, and walks through an example of how to use Power BI for water resource management. We show you how to make a scenario analysis tool using Power BI What If parameters.
Read MoreThis video is part of DiscoverEI's DAX for Enviro's series, and walks through an example of how to use Power BI for water resource management. We show how to calculate the likelihood of different dam storage volumes occurring by analysing 120 different modelling scenarios in Power BI using the DAX iterator PERCENTILEX.
Read MoreThis video is part of DiscoverEI's DAX for Enviro's series, and walks through an example of how to use Power BI for water resource management. We show how to analyse total system dam storage volumes across 120 different modelling scenarios in Power BI using the DAX iterators: AVERAGEX, MINX and MAXX. We take it to the next level by configuring error bands for the minimum and maximum storage outlook volumes to show the range of possible scenarios.
Read MoreFor our November 2022 session, it was all about DAX, and more specifically DAX for Enviro's using environmental dataset examples. Alice ran through some common DAX patterns for a range of environmental applications such as, and then Greg Nash and Sam Fischer supported a robust Q&A on DAX.
Read MoreThis video is part of DiscoverEI's DAX for Enviro's series, and walks through how to calculate long-term averages and moving averages for daily rainfall data using DAX in Power BI. We explore the CALCULATE, ALL, ALLSELECTED and DATESBETWEEN DAX functions, and take it to the next level by creating a dynamic moving average analysis using What If parameters.
Read MoreThis video blog is part of DiscoverEI's DAX for Enviro's series, and shows how to calculate your cumulative groundwater usage in Power BI using TOTALYTD, and create a DAX measure to compare against remaining groundwater licence entitlement volume.
Read MoreThis video blog is part of DiscoverEI's DAX for Enviro's series, and shows how to calculate species richness and abundance in Power BI using the DAX functions SUM and DISTINCTCOUNT.
Read MoreThis video is the first of DiscoverEI's DAX for Enviro's series, and provides an overview into what is DAX, and how to get started creating calculated columns and measures. Alice also shares some of her favourite resources for where you can go to learn more about DAX.
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