Analyzing the distribution of human activity space from mobile phone usage: an individual and urban-oriented study. Issue 8 (2nd August 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yuan, Yihong; Raubal, Martin
• Is Part Of: International journal of geographical information science. Volume 30:Issue 8(2016)
• Page Start: 1594
• Page End: 1621
• Publication Date: 2016-08-02
• Subjects: Activity space -- human mobility -- mobile phones -- Weibull distribution -- data mining -- Big (geo)data; Geography -- Data processing -- Periodicals; Information storage and retrieval systems -- Periodicals; Géomatique -- Périodiques; Systèmes d'information -- Périodiques; 910.285
• DOI: 10.1080/13658816.2016.1143555
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1365-8816

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Travel activities are embodied as people's needs to be physically present at certain locations. The development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs, such as mobile phones) has introduced new data sources for modeling human activities. Based on the scattered spatiotemporal points provided in mobile phone datasets, it is feasible to study the patterns (e.g., the scale, shape, and regularity) of human activities. In this paper, we propose methods for analyzing the distribution of human activity space from both individual and urban perspectives based on mobile phone data. The Weibull distribution is utilized to model three predefined measurements of activity space (radius, shape index, and entropy). The correlation between demographic factors (age and gender) and the usage of urban space is also tested to reveal underlying patterns. The results of this research will enhance the understanding of human activities in different urban systems and demographic groups, as well as providing novel methods to expand the important and widely applicable area of geographic knowledge discovery in the age of instant access.