Anonymised human location data in England for urban mobility research

The rapid expansion of sensor technologies and location-enabled mobile applications has greatly advanced the study of human mobility. Recently emerged sources like mobile app data offer outputs similar to traditional datasets-trip chains, flows, and indicators-but the methods and decisions used to process such data often vary across location, time, and policy context and remain poorly documented and insufficiently transparent. This variability necessitates tailored data processing and validation approaches, which remain underexplored in existing literature. This study aims to provide a reproducible and replicable framework for processing location-points data, using a case study of anonymised mobility records collected in November 2021 across England. We describe a modular workflow and multi-stage validation techniques that enhance the reproducibility of stay-point detection and activity labelling. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the proposed framework can generate reliable mobility indicators and origin-destination flow matrices for broader research applications. The resulting datasets-including sampled anonymised trajectories and full origin-destination flow matrices-are publicly available for research purposes, with updates to code and methodology hosted on GitHub and Zenodo.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Scientific Data
Published
2025-11-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-06323-8
Primary Topic
Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Anonymised human location data in England for urban mobility research

Chen Zhong, Yikang Wang, Zhengzi Zhou, Nilufer Sari Aslam et al.
Scientific Data
Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis
article

Anonymised human location data in England for urban mobility research

Chen Zhong, Yikang Wang, Zhengzi Zhou, Nilufer Sari Aslam, Adham Enaya
article en

Abstract

The rapid expansion of sensor technologies and location-enabled mobile applications has greatly advanced the study of human mobility. Recently emerged sources like mobile app data offer outputs similar to traditional datasets-trip chains, flows, and indicators-but the methods and decisions used to process such data often vary across location, time, and policy context and remain poorly documented and insufficiently transparent. This variability necessitates tailored data processing and validation approaches, which remain underexplored in existing literature. This study aims to provide a reproducible and replicable framework for processing location-points data, using a case study of anonymised mobility records collected in November 2021 across England. We describe a modular workflow and multi-stage validation techniques that enhance the reproducibility of stay-point detection and activity labelling. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the proposed framework can generate reliable mobility indicators and origin-destination flow matrices for broader research applications. The resulting datasets-including sampled anonymised trajectories and full origin-destination flow matrices-are publicly available for research purposes, with updates to code and methodology hosted on GitHub and Zenodo.

Scientific DataVol. 12(1)
University College London (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 64%
Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.

Anonymised human location data in England for urban mobility research — Chen Zhong, Yikang Wang, et al. · Scientific Data (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS