In a world where mobile applications and social networks have become part of one's everyday life, it's not surprising to know that a massive amount of geolocalized content is produced daily.
Twitter is one of the popular networks wherein millions of its users constantly "tweet" about their location and their current activity.
Given this bit of information, a team of computer science experts suggested the use of geolocalized tweets in order to provide useful insights in urban planning and land use. So far, the team had already done it in London, Madrid and Manhattan.
According to Enrique from Telefonica Research in Madrid and Vanessa Frias-Martinez from Maryland University in the U.S., a brother and sister team of computer science researchers, Twitter can become an interaction sensor between the users and their environment, which would then allow them to draft the needed guidelines in urban planning.
"Thanks to the increased use of smartphones, social networks like Twitter and Facebook have made it possible to access and produce information ubiquitously," said the researchers.
Using geolocation details and timestamp data, which are provided by the millions of tweets, can be a significant source in identifying where and when urban density occurs. Twitter can also be used as a tool in determining nightlife activity.
"Twitter includes longitude-latitude information in the tweet if the user so desires," said Enrique.
By using the aggregated activity of user tweets, the two researchers have so far studied land use in London, Madrid and Manhattan. In the last two cases, four land uses have been identified; these include business, residential, daytime leisure and nightlife places. In London, industrial land uses were also established. The results of their study were validated using open data sources.
"One of the most interesting contributions of the study is the identification of nightlife areas," said the researchers. "Therefore, this information is very relevant."
The study shows that the tweeting activity in London is at its peak during the daytime where the concentration is high in leisure areas. In Manhattan, people send out most of their tweets at night and on weekdays, while people in Madrid tweet mostly at night and on the weekends.