Abstract
In a metropolis, people movements design intricate patterns that change on very short temporal scales. Population mobility obviously is not random, but driven by the land uses of the city. Such an urban ecosystem can interestingly be explored by integrating the spatial analysis of land uses (through ecological indicators commonly used to characterize natural environments) with the temporal analysis of human mobility (reconstructed from anonymized mobile phone data). Considering the city of Milan (Italy) as a case study, here we aimed to identify the complex relations occurring between the land-use composition of its neighborhoods and the spatio-temporal patterns of occupation made by citizens. We generated two spatially explicit networks, one static and the other temporal, based on the analysis of land uses and mobile phone data, respectively. The comparison between the results of community detection performed on both networks revealed that neighborhoods that are similar in terms of land-use composition are not necessarily characterized by analogous temporal fluctuations of human activities. In particular, the historical concentric urban structure of Milan is still under play. Our big data driven approach to characterize urban diversity provides outcomes that could be important (i) to better understand how and when urban spaces are actually used, and (ii) to allow policy makers improving strategic development plans that account for the needs of metropolis-like permanently changing cities.
Highlights
Understanding land use occupation and dynamics is crucial for urban and territorial planning, since it allows to capture the results of past modifications, monitor ongoing changes and predict future impacts and opportunities
A visual comparison between maps in Figs. 1A and 2A, which represents the actual distribution of land uses in the city, is sufficient to reveal that the low values of α-diversity in the NILs located in the city center and in the southern part of the city were due to different urban environments
The ever-changing urban environment of a metropolis is shaped by phenomena occurring over very different spatial and temporal scales
Summary
Understanding land use occupation and dynamics is crucial for urban and territorial planning, since it allows to capture the results of past modifications, monitor ongoing changes and predict future impacts and opportunities. Since the end of the 20th century, land use and land cover maps have been extensively generated at different spatial and temporal scales, especially in the framework of the European CORINE program (Feranec et al 2016). In the urban context, the compresence of different land uses can generate intricate patterns that can interestingly be explored with tools that ecologists typically adopt to analyze biodiversity in a natural environment. The total species diversity in a landscape (i.e., its γ -diversity) is a combination of both α- and β-diversity These concepts can be transferred to an urban context to measure the "richness" of land uses of the different neighborhoods (corresponding to α-diversity) and to quantify their dissimilarities in terms of land-use mix (corresponding to β-diversity). The presence of not contiguous areas with similar usage and needs could suggest possible planning measures at higher levels, that cross the borders of the single neighborhoods
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
