Use and validation of location-based services in urban research: An example with Dutch restaurants

Daniel Arribas-Bel and Jessie Bakens
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Daniel Arribas-Bel: Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, UK
Jessie Bakens: Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market, Maastricht University, Netherlands

Urban Studies, 2019, vol. 56, issue 5, 868-884

Abstract: This article focuses on the use of big data for urban geography research. We collect data from the location-based service Foursquare in The Netherlands and employ it to obtain a rich catalogue of restaurant locations and other urban amenities, as well as a measure of their popularity among users. Because the Foursquare data can be combined with traditional sources of socio-economic data obtained from Statistics Netherlands, we can quantify, document and characterise some of the biases inherent in these new sources of data in the context of urban applications. A detailed analysis is given as to when this type of big data is useful and when it is misleading. Although the users of Foursquare are not representative of the whole population, we argue that this inherent bias can be exploited for research about the attractiveness of urban landscapes and consumer amenities in addition to the more traditional data on urban amenities.

Keywords: Foursquare; diversity/cohesion/segregation; method; neighbourhood; urban amenities; Foursquare; 多元化/å‡ è šåŠ›/隔离; 方法; 街区; 城市设施 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:5:p:868-884

DOI: 10.1177/0042098018779554

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