Urban Analytics with Social Media Data

"As computers have scaled to the point where we are able to compute on the move using hand-held devices, enabling us to access remote information in real time, there have been a flurry of new platforms for communication defined as social media. Such media now embrace a wide array of communications from education to retailing to government and business which are providing us with new insights into how cities work from the big data that such platforms generate. Yigitcanlar and Kankanamge have produced an important guide, Urban Analytics with Social Media Data, to this terrain which is relevant to all of us who seek to grapple with the increasing complexity of the city and the key role of social media in the way we might plan our urban futures."

Michael Batty, Professor, University College London

"Sensors on lampposts, sensors embedded in sidewalks, sensors installed on city buses—the ubiquity of urban sensors collecting data and producing tranches of big data to be analysed and then employed in the management of cities is now almost universally understood as the way cities run. In their book, Urban Analytics with Social Media Data, Yigitcanlar and Kankanamge add one more source of urban data—social media. Their book covers new ground as they explore ways to apply the big data generated by social media not only to quotidian urban management issues such as efficient transportation planning or land use planning, but to addressing twenty-first century urban issues such as climate change, pandemic management, and gauging the severity of natural disasters and other urban perturbations. This book is valuable because the authors understand and explain how this new tool of urban analytics—social media big data—can now be used by researchers, policymakers, managers, and urban residents, themselves."

Richard E. Hanley, Editor, Journal of Urban Technology. Professor, The City University of New York

"In Urban Analytics with Social Media Data, Yigitcanlar and Kankanamge have shown us the future. Not just the future through the lens of big data, social media, and urban analytics – but from a perspective of how we can better understand people and place, through evolving techniques that are, and will, revolutionize urban planning and policy. The mix of explanations and examples drawn from a comprehensive mining of the literature is outstanding, highlighting some of the most important technological advances of our day for urban analysis."

Tom Sanchez, Professor, Virginia Tech

"This state-of-the-art volume, Urban Analytics with Social Media Data, is a critical resource for making sense of the explosion of data from social media, sensors, and Internet-of-Things in the urban environment. The authors address their potential for solving a range of urban problems. This comprehensive treatment includes surveys of the literature to highlight important research questions, opportunities, and constraints, from the use of social media data to analytics employing artificial intelligence. It is the case studies and cutting-edge applications, however, that bring to life the possibilities and challenges, in contexts from disaster management to traffic control, drawn from cities around the globe. This book provides an indispensable guide to data and analysis in today’s smart and networked cities."

Karen Mossberger, Professor, Arizona State University

"This book, Urban Analytics with Social Media Data, is an indispensable conceptual and methodological guide to using social media data for making sense of cities and applying the results in practice. Richly illustrated with examples, it will be of high utility for anyone seeking to perform urban analytics."

Rob Kitchin, Professor, Maynooth University