ODT FLOW: Extracting, analyzing, and sharing multi-source multi-scale human mobility

• Published in: PloS one 2021-08, Vol.16 (8), p.e0255259-e0255259
• Main Authors: Li, Zhenlong, Huang, Xiao, Hu, Tao, Ning, Huan, Ye, Xinyue, Huang, Binghu, Li, Xiaoming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Big data; Computer and Information Sciences; Earth Sciences; Geospatial data; Information management; Management; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Research and Analysis Methods; Social Sciences
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255259

In response to the soaring needs of human mobility data, especially during disaster events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated big data challenges, we develop a scalable online platform for extracting, analyzing, and sharing multi-source multi-scale human mobility flows. Within the platform, an origin-destination-time (ODT) data model is proposed to work with scalable query engines to handle heterogenous mobility data in large volumes with extensive spatial coverage, which allows for efficient extraction, query, and aggregation of billion-level origin-destination (OD) flows in parallel at the server-side. An interactive spatial web portal, ODT Flow Explorer, is developed to allow users to explore multi-source mobility datasets with user-defined spatiotemporal scales. To promote reproducibility and replicability, we further develop ODT Flow REST APIs that provide researchers with the flexibility to access the data programmatically via workflows, codes, and programs. Demonstrations are provided to illustrate the potential of the APIs integrating with scientific workflows and with the Jupyter Notebook environment. We believe the platform coupled with the derived multi-scale mobility data can assist human mobility monitoring and analysis during disaster events such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and benefit both scientific communities and the general public in understanding human mobility dynamics.