Correcting Distorted Human Mobility Data from Mobile Phone Applications
Presented by Professor Francisco Rowe, University of Liverpool.
This in-person SENVinar will also be on Zoom: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/86023862143
Abstract
Access to human mobility data is key for a wider variety of social challenges, including urban planning, sustainability, public health and economic development. Location trace data collected through digital technology, such as mobile applications have become widely available to study human mobility, and overcome key limitations of traditional data streams, such as surveys and censuses. Yet, digital trace data are not representative of the general population, and consequently require statistical adjustment to mitigate existing biases and make robust statistical inferences. While efforts have been made to correct human mobility data from digital sources, no generalisable solution has been proposed to satisfactorily adjust human mobility flows by attributes at the origin and destination areas.
I will present the work of newly ESRC-funded project DEBIAS which aims to develop a generalisable framework to measure, assess and correct existing biases in human mobility data extracted from digital trace data. First, I will present a measure to quantify biases in spatial population counts derived from digital trace data, and identify key demographic, socioeconomic and geographic features underlying these biases. Second, I will introduce the proposed framework to mitigate biases in spatial population count data, and generate bias-adjusted DF human mobility counts. Third, I will present our plans for future work on this area.
Bio
Francisco Rowe is a Professor in Population Data Science and the Lead of the Geographic Data Science Lab at the University of Liverpool. He is also member of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD). He is the Co-Chair of the Mobile Phone Data Task Team at UN-CEBD and the Lead of the Migration Sub-group.
His research focuses on human mobility and migration; geographic data science; and spatial inequalities. It seeks to advance our understanding of the causes and impacts of human movements for communities and individuals through the novel application of geographic data science methodologies and digital footprint data. His recent work has focused on changes to human mobility patterns during disasters, including climate, health hazards and conflict, and how urban form shapes mobility patterns and impacts climate.
Francisco works closely with various sections of the UN, including the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the International Organization for Migration and the Statistics Division. Francisco’s research has been published in international journals of Population Geography, Transport, Migration, GIScience and Urban Planning, including Transportation Research Part C, Cities, Population Studies, Applied Geography, Landscape and Urban Planning, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, and Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. Francisco is Editor of REGION, the Journal of the European Regional Science Association, and member of the Editorial Board of Population, Space and Place, and Spatial Economic Analysis.