2025/10/20 by Hezhishi Jiang, Li‐Yan Xu, Jiang, Hezhishi +17
Engineering · Social Sciences · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Urban Design and Spatial Analysis #Urban Transport and Accessibility
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.17174
openalex publication_date 2025/10/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Urban science has largely relied on universal models, rendering the heterogeneous and locally specific nature of cities effectively invisible. Here we introduce a topological framework that defines and detects localities in human mobility networks. We empirically demonstrate that these human mobility network localities are rigorous geometric entities that map directly to geographic localities, revealing that human mobility networks lie on manifolds of dimension <=5. This representation provides a compact theoretical foundation for spatial embedding and enables efficient applications to facility location and propagation modeling. Our approach reconciles local heterogeneity with universal representation, offering a new pathway toward a more comprehensive urban science.