Postearthquake situational awareness based on mobile phone signaling data: An example from the 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake

Abstract

Mobile phone signaling data reflect people's real-time geographic location and trajectory. Current research focuses on utilizing mobile phone signaling data to analyze urban residents' behaviors or identify urban land-use functions. The application of mobile phone signaling data in the disaster field is rare. This study uses a spatiotemporal co-clustering method to analyze people's behavior after the 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake, providing valuable insights for emergency relief. First, we evaluate population changes before and after the earthquake to assess the disaster impact magnitude based on the public's perception of the situation. Moreover, we identified Jiuzhaigou County's spatial functional zones according to population change on a normal day. Finally, based on the overlay analysis of risk and functional zones, we recognize the categories of earthquake-affected zones and types of affected population groups. The results indicate that (1) the highest-risk regions were the tourist reception area and core scenic area in Zhangzha town, while the lowest-risk regions were Yongle and Yongfeng towns. (2) The most affected people were tourists located in Zhangzha town, whereas local residential living areas such as Baihe town and Yongle town were safe regions. Therefore, we suggest that emergency agencies place tourists' rescue and evacuation into the priority category during the earthquake relief decision-making process.