Question

What type of big data analytics are being referred in the following applications :
(a) a system forecasting flash floods based on environmental data and models
(b) Generating mean weekly sales for a supermarket in order to guide promotions of products
(c) A system that analysts the causes of accidents from data for the past 5 years

Answer 1

In general , there are 4 types of big data analytics namely Descriptive , Diagnostic , Predictive and Prescriptive.

First I'll explain all and then tell the answers for the questions.

So , descriptive gives an overall view of all key metrics to an analyst. It mostly requires use of visualization tools for better insights.

Diagnostic analysis helps in getting to the root cause and understanding the issue. This is the next step after descriptive analysis.

After this comes predictive analysis which gives predictions about the future basically it is forecasting.

At last comes Prescriptive analysis wherein a model is made and a lot of ways to deal a problem are included and best one is chosen among them . Eg Google maps see a lot of ways from going from one place to another and suggests the best

Now answer to your questions is :

1. The question itself mentions forecasting so predictive analytics is used.

2. "Generating weekly sales to guide" is the basic thing you need to understand . This line means that you suggest something before hand to help others . Which is forecasting. Hence , Predictive Analytics.

3. It analyses the causes to reach the root cause so Diagnostic Analytics.