Mobility patterns of human population among university campuses

Abstract

Uncovering human mobility patterns is of vital importance to the widely practical applications ranging from urban planning to epidemic controlling. Although numerous previous studies regarding human mobility patterns have been carried out to statistically characterize the dynamics of human mobility in both empirical analysis and modelling approach, research on the level of driving factors of mobility behaviors is still limited. In this paper, we focus on two types of human mobility behaviors which are Non-Spontaneous Mobility and Spontaneous Mobility, respectively. Based on the Wi-Fi access records collected from a university campus, statistical distinctions have been uncovered between these two types of mobility behaviors, where non-spontaneous mobility behaviors display a less heterogeneous but more periodic pattern with a smaller activity range, suggesting the necessity of embedding these two types of behaviors when modelling human mobility.