A presentation discussing the role of user-generated spatial data In understanding the mobility patterns during (and before and after) the corona crisis. Examples by researchers at Digital Geography Lab. Follow our page and blog for updated results: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/digital-geography-lab

1. MOBILITY DATA IN
FIGHTING AND
UNDERSTANDING THE
COVID19 AND RELATED
CRISIS
TUULI TOIVONEN,
OLLE JÄRV,
ELIAS WILLBERG,
TUOMAS VÄISÄNEN
VUOKKO HEIKINHEIMO
ET AL.
TUULI TOIVONEN /
DIGITAL GEOGRAPHY LABGeoforum seminar 7.5.2020

4. COMBATTING THE VIRUS
IS NOT
PHARMACEUTICAL,
IT IS MOSTLY SPATIAL.
Testing and tracing,
Bans on large gatherings,
Non-essential business and school and
university closures,
International and domestic mobility
Restrictions and physical isolation,
Total lockdowns of regions and countries
TUULI TOIVONEN /
DIGITAL GEOGRAPHY LAB
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04
/27/sciadv.abc0764

5. UNDERSTANDING THE CRISIS
CALLS FOR DATA
Environment:
Climate
Weather
Land use
…
Health :
Diagnosed cases
Underlying health
conditions
Other health data
…
Socioeconomy:
Age distribution
Employment and
businesses
Other socioeconomic
variables
…
Mobility:
Global to local scale
movement of people,
encounters, activity spaces
…

6. UNDERSTANDING THE CRISIS
CALLS FOR DATA
Mobility flows
Ambient
population
Interactions
between people
Mobility
data

7. Mobility data

8. HTTPS://WWW.HELSINKI.FI/EN/RESEARCHGROUPS/DIGITAL-GEOGRAPHY-LAB

9. but they are collected, owned and managed
by private companies with other interests than sharing it.
THERE IS A LOT OF BIG
(MOBILITY) DATA
OUT THERE

10. https://www.domo.com/learn/data-never-sleeps-7

11. MOBILE NETWORK DATA
FROM TELEOPERATORS
Good representation of population,
promising possibilities
national in scale

12. 24H POPULATION
(see also Järv, Tenkanen, Salonen, Ahas & Toivonen 2018)
Relative distribution of people at
each hour of the day
MSc thesis work of Claudia Bergroth
(based on model by:
Järv, Tenkanen & Toivonen 2017)

13. Elias Willberg, Digital Geography Lab
with Telia Crowd insights Data
https://blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geography/2020/05/06/covid-19-changed-the-presence-
of-people-and-their-mobility-in-finland-during-march-snapshots-from-mobile-phone-
data/

14. Elias Willberg, Digital Geography Lab
with Telia Crowd insights Data
https://blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geography/2020/05/06/covid-19-changed-the-presence-
of-people-and-their-mobility-in-finland-during-march-snapshots-from-mobile-phone-
data/

15. Elias Willberg, Digital Geography Lab
with Telia Crowd insights Data
https://blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geography/2020/05/06/covid-19-changed-the-presence-
of-people-and-their-mobility-in-finland-during-march-snapshots-from-mobile-phone-
data/

16. COVID RESTRICTIONS DROPPED
MOBILITY IN FINLAND
Olle Järv, Digital Geography Lab with Telia Crowd insights Data
https://blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geography/2020/05/06/covid-19-changed-the-presence-of-people-and-their-mobility-in-finland-during-march-snapshots-from-mobile-phone-data/

17. MOBILITIES FROM UUSIMAA
TO OTHER REGIONS
First week of February
Anonymised and aggregated
data by Telia Crowd Insights
Daily trips between regions,
aggregated from municipality level
Tuomas Väisänen, Digital Geography Lab

18. MOBILITIES FROM UUSIMAA
TO OTHER REGIONS
Holiday week (23.2.2020)
Anonymised and aggregated
data by Telia Crowd Insights
Daily trips between regions,
aggregated from municipality level
Tuomas Väisänen, Digital Geography Lab

19. MOBILITIES FROM UUSIMAA
TO OTHER REGIONS
18TH MARCH
Anonymised and aggregated
data by Telia Crowd Insights
Daily trips between regions,
aggregated from municipality level
Tuomas Väisänen, Digital Geography Lab

20. MOBILITIES FROM UUSIMAA
TO OTHER REGIONS
28TH MARCH 2020
Anonymised and aggregated
data by Telia Crowd Insights
Daily trips between regions,
aggregated from municipality level
Tuomas Väisänen, Digital Geography Lab

21. MOBILITIES FROM UUSIMAA
TO OTHER REGIONS
30TH MARCH 2020
Anonymised and aggregated
data by Telia Crowd Insights
Daily trips between regions,
aggregated from municipality level
Tuomas Väisänen, Digital Geography Lab

22. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/27/sciadv.abc0764

23. GOOGLE MOBILITY DATA
Black box, but allows novel temporal inspections

24. Graphs by Tuomo Virkola, @virkola

25. Graphs by Tuomo Virkola, @virkola

26. THE CHANGE IN
VISITS TO
WORKPLACES
DECREASED BY 26%
IN SWEDEN, 39% IN
DENMARK, 41% IN
NORWAY & 47% IN
FINLAND.
https://nordregio.org/maps/mobility-
changes-due-to-covid-19/

27. Sporadic but rich in content and global in nature
SOCIAL MEDIA DATA

28. For more, see: Toivonen et al. (2019)
Social media Data for Conservation Science – a Methodological Overview
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718317609
SOCIAL
MEDIA
DATA

29. VISITORS OF
PALLAS-YLLÄS NATIONAL PARK

30. Posts from a Finnish Instagram-user. 107 posts in total.
A VISITOR OF
PALLAS-YLLÄS NATIONAL PARK

31. Rogers Pass Summit,
Canada
Schladming-Dachstein, Austria Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park,
Finland
Posts from a Finnish Instagram-user. 107 posts in total.
A VISITOR OF
PALLAS-YLLÄS NATIONAL PARK

32. CROSS BORDER MOBILITIES: TWEET MOBILITIES OF FINNS (YELLOW) AND ESTONIANS (BLUE)
WHO HAVE TWEETED IN BOTH COUNTRIES.
Ongoing work by Olle Järv, Tuomas Väisänen et al. Read more via https://bit.ly/31KELHo !

33. Digital Geography Lab
CROSS BORDER MOBILITIES: RUSSIAN MOBILITIES TO ESTONIA (GREEN), FINLAND (YELLOW)
AND BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES (PINK).
Ongoing work by Olle Järv, Tuomas Väisänen et al. Read more via https://bit.ly/31KELHo !

34. THE CRISIS HAS HIGHLIGHTED MANY
DATA RELATED MATTERS

35. COLLABORATION BETWEEN DATA
OWNERS, ADMINISTRATION AND
RESEARCH
THE CRISIS HAS HIGHLIGHTED THE
NEED FOR:

36. WELL-THOUGHT DATA PRODUCTS
INSTEAD OF AD-HOC SOLUTIONS
THE CRISIS HAS HIGHLIGHTED THE
NEED FOR:

37. SOLVING CHALLENGES OF PRIVACY AND
ANONYMISATION IN A CONTROLLED
MANNER
THE CRISIS HAS HIGHLIGHTED THE
NEED FOR

38. A MORE HARMONIZED OR COORDINATED
APPROACH FOR USE OF INDIVIDUAL
LEVEL DATA
THE CRISIS HAS HIGHLIGHTED THE
NEED FOR

39. IMPORTANCE OF OPENNESS AND
TARNSPARENCY OF DATA AND METHODS
THE CRISIS HAS HIGHLIGHTED THE
NEED FOR:

40. THE VALUE OF SPATIAL
ANALYSES AND RESEARCH OVERALL
THE CRISIS HAS HIGHLIGHTED THE
NEED FOR:

41. DIGITAL
GEOGRAPHY LAB
Tuuli
Toivonen
Henrikki
Tenkanen
Olle
Järv
Vuokko
Heikinheimo
Tuomo
Hiippala
Joel
Jalkanen
Elias
Willberg
Kerli
Müürisepp
Tuomas
Väisänen
Joose Helle
Age
Poom
HTTPS://WWW.HELSINKI.FI/EN/RESEARCHGROUPS/DIGITAL-GEOGRAPHY-LAB
Johanna
Eklund

42. THANK YOU!
TWITTER:
@DIGIGEOLAB, @TUULITOIVONEN
WEBSITE:
HTTPS://WWW.HELSINKI.FI/EN/RESEARC
HGROUPS/DIGITAL-GEOGRAPHY-LAB
TUULI TOIVONEN /
DIGITAL GEOGRAPHY LAB

43. SOME REFERENCES: AMBIENT
POPULATION & MOBILE PHONE
DATA
• Järv et al. (2018) Dynamic cities: Location-based accessibility
modelling as a function of time
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2018.04.009
• Bergroth (2019) Uncovering population dynamics using mobile
phone data : the case of Helsinki Metropolitan Area.
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:hulib-201905272171

44. SOME REFERENCES ON
SOCIAL MEDIA DATA
ANALYSES
• Toivonen et al. (2019) Social media data for conservation
science: A methodological overview
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.01.023
• From part 3 onwards: generic descriptions of social media data,
access and mining, relevant to all fields of spatially orientated
research
• Tenkanen et al. (2017) Instagram, Flickr, or Twitter: Assessing
the usability of social media data for visitor monitoring in
protected areas https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-18007-4
• Relevant for understanding how well social media data presents
people in places. National parks as a test lab, with ground truth
data on the visitor numbers.
• For more relevant references, see the work by Heikinheimo et
al., Hausmann et al. and Hiippala et al. cited in Toivonen et al.
2019.