Which analytics type describes what has happened in data, used to summarize historical data?

Which analytics type describes what has happened in data, used to summarize historical data?

• A. Diagnostic Analytics
• B. Predictive Analytics
• C. Descriptive Analytics
• D. Prescriptive Analytics

Answer: (C)

Descriptive analytics focuses on what has happened by organizing and summarizing historical data. It turns raw numbers into clear summaries, charts, reports, and maps that show past activity—like total losses by year, incident counts by region, or a heat map of where events occurred. This approach helps you see patterns, trends, and distributions in the data, providing a concrete view of the historical record. In geospatial risk management, descriptive analytics might summarize past flood events across districts, giving you a straightforward picture of where and when risks were most active. It answers the basic question of the data: what happened? By contrast, diagnostic analytics explains why something happened, predictive looks at what is likely to happen next, and prescriptive suggests what actions to take. So describing past events and summarizing historical data is exactly what descriptive analytics does.

Descriptive analytics focuses on what has happened by organizing and summarizing historical data. It turns raw numbers into clear summaries, charts, reports, and maps that show past activity—like total losses by year, incident counts by region, or a heat map of where events occurred. This approach helps you see patterns, trends, and distributions in the data, providing a concrete view of the historical record. In geospatial risk management, descriptive analytics might summarize past flood events across districts, giving you a straightforward picture of where and when risks were most active. It answers the basic question of the data: what happened? By contrast, diagnostic analytics explains why something happened, predictive looks at what is likely to happen next, and prescriptive suggests what actions to take. So describing past events and summarizing historical data is exactly what descriptive analytics does.