The impact of social segregation on human mobility in developing and industrialized regions

TLDR

Developing regions such as the Ivory Coast suffer from limited infrastructure, economic resources, and cultural diversity that shape mobility patterns. The study compares human mobility in the Ivory Coast and Portugal using mobile phone data and proposes methods to assess border strength and its impact on mobility model accuracy. By contrasting mobile phone records from both countries, the authors identify qualitative and quantitative differences in travel likelihood and duration, and introduce a regional partitioning scheme to quantify border strength effects on model performance. The results show that cultural and linguistic diversity in the Ivory Coast challenges mobility models built for less diverse settings and reveals marked differences in travel behavior between the two nations.

Abstract

This study leverages mobile phone data to analyze human mobility patterns in a developing nation, especially in comparison to those of a more industrialized nation. Developing regions, such as the Ivory Coast, are marked by a number of factors that may influence mobility, such as less infrastructural coverage and maturity, less economic resources and stability, and in some cases, more cultural and language-based diversity. By comparing mobile phone data collected from the Ivory Coast to similar data collected in Portugal, we are able to highlight both qualitative and quantitative differences in mobility patterns - such as differences in likelihood to travel, as well as in the time required to travel - that are relevant to consideration on policy, infrastructure, and economic development. Our study illustrates how cultural and linguistic diversity in developing regions (such as Ivory Coast) can present challenges to mobility models that perform well and were conceptualized in less culturally diverse regions. Finally, we address these challenges by proposing novel techniques to assess the strength of borders in a regional partitioning scheme and to quantify the impact of border strength on mobility model accuracy.