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

    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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