The impact of human mobility data scales and processing on movement predictability

Smolak, K., Siła-Nowicka, K. , Delvenne, J.-C., Wierzbiński, M. and Rohm, W. (2021) The impact of human mobility data scales and processing on movement predictability. Scientific Reports, 11, 15177. (doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-94102-x) (PMID:34312402) (PMCID:PMC8313525)

Abstract

Predictability of human movement is a theoretical upper bound for the accuracy of movement prediction models, which serves as a reference value showing how regular a dataset is and to what extent mobility can be predicted. Over the years, the predictability of various human mobility datasets was found to vary when estimated for differently processed datasets. Although attempts at the explanation of this variability have been made, the extent of these experiments was limited. In this study, we use high-precision movement trajectories of individuals to analyse how the way we represent the movement impacts its predictability and thus, the outcomes of analyses made on these data. We adopt a number of methods used in the last 11 years of research on human mobility and apply them to a wide range of spatio-temporal data scales, thoroughly analysing changes in predictability and produced data. We find that spatio-temporal resolution and data processing methods have a large impact on the predictability as well as geometrical and numerical properties of human mobility data, and we present their nonlinear dependencies.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Sila-Nowicka, Ms Katarzyna
• Authors: Smolak, K., Siła-Nowicka, K., Delvenne, J.-C., Wierzbiński, M., and Rohm, W.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• ISSN (Online): 2045-2322
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Scientific Reports 11: 15177
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License
• Data DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4893369