Explorative Analysis of Wuhan Intra-Urban Human Mobility Using Social Media Check-In Data

PLoS One. 2015 Aug 19;10(8):e0135286. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135286. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Social media check-in data as a geo-tagged information source have been used for revealing spatio-temporal patterns in the field of social and urban study, such as human behavior or public issues. This paper investigates a case study and presents a new method of representing the mobility of people within a city from check-in data. By dividing the data in a temporal sequence, this study examines the overall mobility in the case study city through the gradient/difference of population density with a series of time after computing the population density from the check-in data using an incorporated Thiessen polygon method. By classifying check-in data with their geo-tags into several groups according to travel purposes, and partitioning the data according to administrative district boundaries, various moving patterns for those travel purposes in those administrative districts are identified by scrutinizing a series of spatial geometries of a weighted standard deviational ellipse (WSDE). Through deep analyses of those data by the adopted approaches, the general pattern of mobility in the case city, such as people moving to the central urban area from the suburb from 4 am to 8 am, is ascertained, and different characteristics of movement in those districts are also depicted. Furthermore, it can tell that in which district less movement is likely for a certain purpose (e.g., for dinner or entertainment). This study has demonstrated the availability of the proposed methodology and check-in data for investigating intra-urban human mobility.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Humans
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Population Density
  • Population Dynamics / statistics & numerical data*
  • Social Media*
  • Travel / statistics & numerical data*
  • Urban Population

Grants and funding

This study is funded by the National Natural Science Fund of China (41271458), the National 863 Plan of China (2013AA12A202), and the National Key Technology Support Program of China (2012BAH35F03-06). HZ received the first funding, and LL received the last two funding. And the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.