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Geographic Information Science at the Heart of Europe pp 55–72Cite as

Using Data from Location Based Social Networks for Urban Activity Clustering

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography ((LNGC))

Abstract

Understanding the spatial and temporal aspects of activities in urban regions is one of the key challenges for the emerging fields of urban computing and emergency management as it provides indispensable insights on the quality of services in urban environments and helps to describe the socio-dynamics of urban districts. This work presents a novel approach to obtain this highly valuable knowledge. We hereby propose a segmentation of a city into clusters based on activity profiles using data from a Location Based Social Network (LBSN). In our approach, a segment is represented by different locations sharing the same temporal distribution of check-ins. We reveal how to describe the topic of the determined segments by modelling the difference to the overall temporal distribution of check-ins of the region. Furthermore, a technique from multidimensional scaling is adopted to compute a classification of all segments and visualize the results. The proposed method was successfully applied to Foursquare data recorded from May to October 2012 in the region of Cologne (Germany) and returns clear patterns separating areas known for different activities like nightlife or daily work. Finally, we discuss different aspects related to the use of data from LBSNs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.telecompaper.com/news/german-govt-to-limit-telefonica-plans-to-sell-customer-data--905518 (last visited: 14.11.2012).

  2. 2.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whrrl (last visited: 14.11.2012).

  3. 3.

    https://foursquare.com/about/ (last visited: 14.11.2012).

  4. 4.

    https://dev.twitter.com/docs/using-search (last visited: 14.11.2012).

  5. 5.

    https://developer.foursquare.com/ (last visited: 14.11.2012).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer IAIS, Schloss Birlinghoven, 53757, Sankt Augustin, Germany

    Roberto Rösler

  2. Department of Computer Science LS8, TU Dortmund University, 44221, Dortmund, Germany

    Thomas Liebig

Authors
  1. Roberto Rösler
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  2. Thomas Liebig
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roberto Rösler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Spatial Applications Division, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Heverlee, Vlaams Brabant, Belgium

    Danny Vandenbroucke

  2. COGIT, Institut Geographique National France (IGN-France), Saint-Mandé Cedex, Paris, France

    Bénédicte Bucher

  3. Public Management Institute, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Leuven, Vlaams Brabant, Belgium

    Joep Crompvoets

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Rösler, R., Liebig, T. (2013). Using Data from Location Based Social Networks for Urban Activity Clustering. In: Vandenbroucke, D., Bucher, B., Crompvoets, J. (eds) Geographic Information Science at the Heart of Europe. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00615-4_4

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