Joining remote sensing and social media data for migration research

Kurzfassung

Human migration is a key aspect of global urban change, and its study at global scale requires big data approaches. Satellite data are a suitable tool to map physical factors of migration, such as impacts of climate change, natural disasters, or the growth of cities. However, no less important are socioeconomic drivers and effects. To study these, text data (e.g., from social media) are a potential data source that can be harnessed with increasingly sophisticated AI tools. This talk will present several studies conducted by the teams of the department of Geo-Risks and Civil Security at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Earth Observation Research Center (EORC) of the University of Würzburg. The talk will illustrate potentials and challenges that lie in the joint use of the two data types, with a focus on studies of African cities.