Citation

Lenormand M, Gonçalves B, Tugores A, Ramasco JJ. J. R. Soc. Interface 2015; 12(109): 20150473.

Affiliation

Instituto de Física Interdisciplinary Sistemas Complejos IFISC (CSIC-UIB), Campus UIB, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Royal Society)

DOI

10.1098/rsif.2015.0473

PMID

26179991

PMCID

PMC4535413

Abstract

Cities are characterized by concentrating population, economic activity and services. However, not all cities are equal and a natural hierarchy at local, regional or global scales spontaneously emerges. In this work, we introduce a method to quantify city influence using geolocated tweets to characterize human mobility. Rome and Paris appear consistently as the cities attracting most diverse visitors. The ratio between locals and non-local visitors turns out to be fundamental for a city to truly be global. Focusing only on urban residents' mobility flows, a city-to-city network can be constructed. This network allows us to analyse centrality measures at different scales. New York and London play a central role on the global scale, while urban rankings suffer substantial changes if the focus is set at a regional level.

Language: en