Mobile Phone Data for Mapping Urban Dynamics

During the last few years, new tools for estimating people’s density in cities have emerged through mobile network data. As opposed to the more traditional methods of urban surveys, the use of aggregated and anonymous mobile phone network log files has shown promise for large-scale surveys with notably smaller efforts and costs. Moreover, a frequent data feed from the mobile network has been argued to demonstrate fine grain over-time variation in urban movements, lacking from the traditional prediction methods. Despite the positivist approach to the new methodology, additional evidence is needed to show how mobile network data correlate with the actual presence of people, and how they can be used to map different urban domains. We try to address this shortcoming presenting the results of a research carried out in Lombardy Region, using mobile phone data provided by Telecom Italia, as a promising approach to assist the traditional database and analysis of urban dynamics as new challenges for urban planning