Uncovering the spatial structure of mobility networks
Open accessAbstract
The extraction of a clear and simple footprint of the structure of large, weighted and directed networks is a general problem that has relevance for many applications. An important example is seen in origin-destination matrices, which contain the complete information on commuting flows, but are difficult to analyze and compare. We propose here a versatile method, which extracts a coarse-grained signature of mobility networks, under the form of a 2 × 2 matrix that separates the flows into four categories. We apply this method to origin-destination matrices extracted from mobile phone data recorded in 31 Spanish cities. We show that these cities essentially differ by their proportion of two types of flows: integrated (between residential and employment hotspots) and random flows, whose importance increases with city size. Finally, the method allows the determination of categories of networks, and in the mobility case, the classification of cities according to their commuting structure. The availability of pervasive data has opened up possibilities for quantitative approaches to many phenomena, but extracting useful information from huge datasets is difficult. Here, Louail et al. propose a method to extract a coarse-grained signature of large weighted networks and apply it to mobility networks.
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Studies that focus on mathematical analyses of topology have helped us gain insight into spatial patterns that characterize different types of environments.
“Studies that focus on mathematical analyses of topology have helped us gain insight into spatial patterns that characterize different types of environments 43,135,208 .”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [135]
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From cognitive maps to spatial schemas
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- Authors
- Louail, T., Lenormand, M., Picornell, M., García Cantú, O., Herranz, R., Frias-Martinez, E., Ramasco, J. J., & Barthelemy, M.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Nommon Solutions and Technologies (Spain) (ES)
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2015-01-21
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 6007-6007
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1963905090
- Cited by
- 203
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 23.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- HAL Portal Artxiker (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (India)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- European Commission (2007–2013, FP7 2007-2013, 318367, FP7/2007)
- Govern de les Illes Balears
- European Social Fund (2007–2013, FP7/2007-2013, PD/004/2013)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Urban Design and Spatial Analysis
- Keywords
- mobility networks, origin-destination matrix, commuting flows, directed weighted networks, mobile phone data, random flows, city size, urban mobility, network structure
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