Visualization and analysis of local and distant population flows on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using crowd-sourced data

Abstract

Human migration between cities is one important aspect of spatial interaction that not only reflects urban attractiveness but also denotes interactions amongst agglomerations. We therefore implemented a web-based visualization system to analyze and interactively explore local and distant population flow patterns between cities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). We utilized 2017 Tencent population flow data from which we initially constructed inbound and outbound vectors for cities on the QTP. We then used multidimensional scaling to examine and visualize migration patterns and similarities between cities. Results reveal the presence of six local and three distant human mobility patterns on the QTP as well as average summer monthly migrations more than twice the level of those in the winter.