This book discusses the role of mobile network data in urban informatics, particularly how mobile network data is utilized in the mobility context, where approaches, models, and systems are developed for understanding travel behavior. The objectives of this book are thus to evaluate the extent to which mobile network data reflects travel behavior and to develop guidelines on how to best use such data to understand and model travel behavior. To achieve these objectives, the book attempts to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this data source for urban informatics and its applicability to the development and implementation of travel behavior models through a series of the authors’ research studies. Traditionally, survey-based information is used as an input for travel demand models that predict future travel behavior and transportation needs. A survey-based approach is however costly and time-consuming, and hence its information can be dated and limited to a particular region. Mobile network data thus emerges as a promising alternative data source that is massive in both cross-sectional and longitudinal perspectives, and one that provides both broader geographic coverage of travelers and longer-term travel behavior observation. The two most common types of travel demand model that have played an essential role in managing and planning for transportation systems are four-step models and activity-based models. The book’s chapters are structured on the basis of these travel demand models in order to provide researchers and practitioners with an understanding of urban informatics and the important role that mobile network data plays in advancing the state of the art from the perspectives of travel behavior research.

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity.

Urban Informatics: Using Big Data to Understand and Serve Communities introduces the reader to the tools of data management, analysis, and manipulation using R statistical software. Designed for undergraduate and above level courses, this book is an ideal onramp for the study of urban informatics and how to translate novel data sets into new insights and practical tools. The book follows a unique pedagogical approach developed by the author to enable students to build skills by pursuing projects that inspire and motivate them. Each chapter has an Exploratory Data Assignment that prompts readers to practice their new skills on a data set of their choice. These assignments guide readers through the process of becoming familiar with the contents of a novel data set and communicating meaningful insights from the data to others. Key Features: The technical curriculum consists of both data management and analytics, including both as needed to become acquainted with and reveal the content of a new data set. Content that is contextualized in real-world applications relevant to community concerns. Unit-level assignments that educators might use as midterms or otherwise. These include Community Experience assignments that prompt students to evaluate the assumptions they have made about their data against real world information. All data sets are publicly available through the Boston Data Portal.

"This book exposes research accounts which seek to convey an appreciation for local differences, for the empowerment of people and for the human-centred design of urban technology"--Provided by publisher.

An unflinching look at the aspiring city-builders of our smart, mobile, connected future. From Beijing to Boston, cities are deploying smart technology—sensors embedded in streets and subways, Wi-Fi broadcast airports and green spaces—to address the basic challenges faced by massive, interconnected metropolitan centers. In Smart Cities, Anthony M. Townsend documents this emerging futuristic landscape while considering the motivations, aspirations, and shortcomings of the key actors—entrepreneurs, mayors, philanthropists, and software developers—at work in shaping the new urban frontier.

This book forms a selection of chapters submitted for the CUPUM (Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management) conference, held in the second week of June 2021 at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. Chapters were selected from a double-blind review process by the conference's scientific committee. The chapters in the book cover developments and applications with big data and urban analytics, collaborative urban planning, applications of geodesign and innovations, and planning support science.