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Published on: February 25, 2013
The exciting potential and daunting challenge of using GPS human-mobility data for epidemic modeling
Francisco Barreras1, Duncan J Watts2,3,4
1Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. fbarrer@sas.upenn.edu.
None:
Large-scale GPS location datasets hold immense potential for measuring human mobility and interpersonal contact, both of which are essential for data-driven epidemiology. However, despite their potential and widespread adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are several challenges with these data that raise concerns regarding the validity and robustness of its applications. Here we outline two types of challenges-some related to accessing and processing these data, and some related to data quality-and propose several research directions to address them moving forward.
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