Urban acupuncture 2.0: Urban management tool inspired by social media

Abstract

This paper presents an argued vision on urban acupuncture as a research-based tool to manage urban territories by taking local actions in specific points. We argue that if based on analysis of social media data, urban acupuncture becomes an informative source for e-government and allows to design targeted urban planning decisions minimizing resources and increasing civil participation. While traditional urban acupuncture method relied on expert interviews with architects and urban planners, which is quite biased 'subjective' data source, urban acupuncture based on geo-located data from social media produced by users themselves allows to account for actual social behaviours. Urban acupuncture 2.0., as we name it here, provides insights into citizens' activities and attitudes towards certain city locations and serves as a solid grounding for taking decisions concerning specific territories. Social media data covers the whole city and involves a bigger variety of social groups; due to these specifics of data urban acupuncture 2.0. becomes more informative and representative for taking decisions. In this paper we show urban acupuncture 2.0. approach on the case-study of Samara-city, Russia, and development of its public spaces. Data used is from Vkontakte, Twitter and Instagram social media. We apply series of data mining tools, in particular, PCA and LDA methods, to user-generated texts. Results show popularity of public spaces by time and location, dominant type of activity and dominant type of users. Results also reveal mismatches between functionality of a public space and a type of activity there. Based on these findings recommendations are generated on how to develop Samara public spaces in line with acupuncture approach: targeted interventions deriving from existing citizens' subjective attitudes and habits towards these places are proposed.