Movement Trends

Understanding population movement trends is of paramount importance for various fields, including urban planning, disaster response, and public policy formulation. Traditional methods of data collection, such as census surveys, while valuable, often face limitations in terms of scale, timeliness, and granularity. Mobility data, sourced from mobile devices, GPS, and other location-based services, offers an alternative approach that can transcend these limitations. By analyzing anonymized and aggregated location data generated by a sample of individuals, we aim to uncover nuanced patterns of movement within urban and rural settings, and gauge the impact of external factors, such as public events or emergencies, on population mobility. It is crucial to emphasize that this approach, however, does not come without significant limitations, in particular, in terms of sample bias.

This pilot study seeks to demonstrate the potential of mobility data as a powerful tool for estimating population movement trends, particularly, in context of emergencies and data scarcity. The objectives of this study are threefold:

• To assess the feasibility and accuracy of using mobility data for estimating population movement trends.

• To develop analytical methods and models that can extract meaningful insights from this data.

• To showcase the practical applications and relevance of such insights for informed decision-making in various domains.

This pilot study resulted in following (experimental) outputs:

• Estimating cross-border movement in Lebanon and Syria through Mobility Data

• Türkiye-Syria Earquake Impact

Data

Data Availability Statement

Data are available upon request through the Development Data Partnership. Licensing and access information for all other datasets are included throughout this documentation.