Measuring the Degree of Balance between Urban and Tourism Development: An Analytical Approach Using Cellular Data

• Main Authors: Cheng Shi, Mengyang Liu, Yu Ye
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: balanced tourism; cellular data; built environment; multi-sourced urban data; Shanghai
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9598

This study presents an analytical approach for measuring the degree of balance between urban and tourism development, which has been previously analyzed qualitatively and was difficult to measure. With the help of 1012 million cellular data records generated by 20 million users in two weeks, we tracked the behavior of residents, commuters, and tourists at a set of historical conservation areas in central Shanghai. We calculated the degree of balance and visualized it via ternary graphs. Moreover, the relationships between key urban features derived from multi-sourced urban data and balanced degrees of tourism development were analyzed via multinomial logistic analysis. Insights gained from this analysis will help to achieve a more scientific decision-making process toward balanced urban development for historical conservation area. Achievements in this study contribute to the development of human-centered planning through providing continuous measurements of an “unmeasurable” quality.