https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00258-3
Regular Article
Unraveling the hidden organisation of urban systems and their mobility flows
1
CoMuNe Lab, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Via Sommarive 18, 38123, Povo (TN), Italy
2
Department of Mathematics, University of Trento, Via Sommarive 14, 38123, Povo (TN), Italy
Received:
17
June
2020
Accepted:
21
December
2020
Published online:
15
January
2021
Increasing evidence suggests that cities are complex systems, with structural and dynamical features responsible for a broad spectrum of emerging phenomena. Here we use a unique data set of human flows and couple it with information on the underlying street network to study, simultaneously, the structural and functional organisation of 10 world megacities. We quantify the efficiency of flow exchange between areas of a city in terms of integration and segregation using well defined measures. Results reveal unexpected complex patterns that shed new light on urban organisation. Large cities tend to be more segregated and less integrated, while their overall topological organisation resembles that of small world networks. At the same time, the heterogeneity of flows distribution might act as a catalyst for further integrating a city. Our analysis unravels how human behaviour influences, and is influenced by, the urban environment, suggesting quantitative indicators to control integration and segregation of human flows that can be used, among others, for restriction policies to adopt during emergencies and, as an interesting byproduct, allows us to characterise functional (dis)similarities of different metropolitan areas, countries, and cultures.
Key words: Complex networks / Integration / Segregation / Human mobility / Urban systems
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00258-3.
© The Author(s) 2021
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