Title

Modeling Use of Space from Social Media Data Using a Biased Random Walker

Authors

Authors

S. D. Prager;R. P. Wiegand

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Trans. GIS

Keywords

MOVING-OBJECTS; HUMAN MOVEMENT; NETWORKS; ACCESSIBILITY; UNCERTAINTY; PATTERNS; BEHAVIOR; SYNTAX; Geography

Abstract

Individuals and other entities move through space as a function of local characteristics of place, their internal behavioral models, and the topological structure of the underlying space. When a collection of locations (i.e. geotagged photos or other geotagged social media information) from a large number of individuals is assembled, it becomes possible to understand the interrelationship between the individuals and the space they occupy. This research systematically considers this interrelationship through an examination of the effect of the intersection of behavioral and spatial characteristics on individuals moving on street networks. The research illustrates how social media data, in combination with a biased random walker, can be used to understand and model the interaction of spatial structure and social-environmental factors on influencing individuals' use of their environment. The biased walker offers a flexible approach to incorporate consideration of both social-environmental and structural factors into a model and we demonstrate this through a case study wherein we are able to use the random walker to model the characteristics of Flickr users in New York City.

Journal Title

Transactions in Gis

Volume

18

Issue/Number

6

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

817

Last Page

833

WOS Identifier

WOS:000346581500003

ISSN

1361-1682

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