NTT DoCoMo announced today that two recently completed research projects conducted jointly with Japanese universities have demonstrated that mobile spatial statistics, or population statistics compiled from data used to provide mobile services, can provide useful information for planning disaster-prevention measures and urban development. If specific, practical applications are developed, it is envisioned that national and local governments will be able to use DoCoMo’s spatial statistics for planning in these fields. Mobile spatial statistics are aggregate data about mobile phone locations and user attributes. In the use of such statistics, individual users are never identified.
The project was conducted across Tokyo from November 22, 2010 to March 31, 2011. The results of the study showed that spatial statistics can be used to estimate the distribution of people who would have difficulties returning home if a major earthquake centered on Tokyo were ever to occur.