Open AccessA Generalized Radiation Model for Human Mobility: Spatial Scale, Searching Direction and Trip Constraint
Author(s) -
Chaogui Kang,
Yu Liu,
Diansheng Guo,
Kun Qin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0143500
Subject(s) - normalization (sociology) , scaling , universality (dynamical systems) , constraint (computer aided design) , generalization , radiation , computer science , statistical physics , exponent , mathematics , physics , mathematical analysis , geometry , linguistics , philosophy , quantum mechanics , sociology , anthropology
We generalized the recently introduced “radiation model”, as an analog to the generalization of the classic “gravity model”, to consolidate its nature of universality for modeling diverse mobility systems. By imposing the appropriate scaling exponent λ , normalization factor κ and system constraints including searching direction and trip OD constraint, the generalized radiation model accurately captures real human movements in various scenarios and spatial scales, including two different countries and four different cities. Our analytical results also indicated that the generalized radiation model outperformed alternative mobility models in various empirical analyses.