Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 8 Settlement level user rates and connectivity values, as well as NUTS-3 and NUT-2 level
aggregations of raw connection data
In other words average relative distance rates are calculated as a percentage of
average observed distances compared to average expected distances, or could be
treated as normalised versions of absolute distance values. While the average
absolute distance map shows rather concentric spatial pattern of values
(as expected) the other map performed differently, indicating how far a connection
network is reaching from a certain location. It is also observable that larger
settlements have more distant connections on average, while smaller ones are
usually tied with only closer partners.
Thematic map of user rates (the rate of iWiW users among total population)
reflects also that intensity of OSN activity is pretty much depending on settlement
size (top left map on Fig.
8
). It seems that larger cities have not just higher total
number of users, but higher user rates as well. On the other hand, if we look on the
map of the average number of connections, namely the average number of iWiW
friendship ties among co-located iWiW users (users with the same settlement
designation) it can be observed that peripheral areas in the south and west, and
sometimes also smaller settlements have higher connectivity values (Lengyel and
Jakobi
2014
). Differences and spatial patterns are, however, not too significant.
By taking advantage of ArcGIS analytical techniques geospatial aggregations of
data were performed on the level of NUTS-3 and NUTS-2 regions as well. As a
result, generalized network maps (bottom left and right maps on Fig.
8
) were
created indicating macro-regional network characteristics. Although the maps
show all ties among nodes, strong or weak connections can be easily distinguished.
