Profiling urban populations through mobile phone data: an application in the Milan urban region

This paper aims to explore the potential of mobile phone data for identifying and interpreting mobility practices and their space–time variability in contemporary cities to identify different mobile populations, in a specific setting: the Milan urban region (Northern Italy). These profiles of mobile populations can be relevant for defining their main needs in terms of mobility supply and for addressing interventions in relation to transport systems aimed at selectively enhancing accessibility to relevant urban functions located in a wide urban region that goes far beyond administrative boundaries. The research contributes to the definition of an integrated research protocol for monitoring mobility practices that can offer useful support to decision-making processes.The paper is divided into three different sections. The first section (section ii) discusses the role of mobile phone data in urban studies with reference to the current scientific literature on this topic. In the next section (section iii), we present an application of mobile phone data analysis and mapping, for the classification of urban spaces and populations in the Milan urban region. Finally (section iv), we highlight the challenges faced by policy-makers, official statistical institutions and researchers when trying to integrate mobile phone data into their activities