Mobile Landscapes: Using Location Data from Cell Phones for Urban Analysis

TLDR

Geographic location technology for cell phones is increasingly available, enabling location‑based services for individuals and, when aggregated in cities, a powerful tool for urban analysis. The paper reviews and introduces the potential of location data to the urban planning community. It presents the Mobile Landscapes project, an application in Milan that maps cell‑phone usage across different times of day. The project produces graphic representations of urban activity intensity and its spatiotemporal evolution, and discusses future applications for urban studies and planning.

Abstract

The technology for determining the geographic location of cell phones and other handheld devices is becoming increasingly available. It is opening the way to a wide range of applications, collectively referred to as location-based services (LBS), that are primarily aimed at individual users. However, if deployed to retrieve aggregated data in cities, LBS could become a powerful tool for urban analysis. In this paper we aim to review and introduce the potential of this technology to the urban planning community. In addition, we present the ‘Mobile Landscapes' project: an application in the metropolitan area of Milan, Italy, based on the geographical mapping of cell phone usage at different times of the day. The results enable a graphic representation of the intensity of urban activities and their evolution through space and time. Finally, a number of future applications are discussed and their potential for urban studies and planning is assessed.