Spatial Mobility & Campus Zones

1 Spatial Mobility & Campus Zones

This section describes the longitudinal Spatial Mobility and Categorical Campus Zone datasets extracted from over 11.5 million passive GPS and network location fixes collected across study weeks 7 through 192 (spanning all four undergraduate years: 2011–2015, \(N = 16,144\) student-week observations across 188 students).

ImportantPrivacy & Anonymity Guarantee

To protect participant privacy and comply with IRB requirements, no raw geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude), exact timestamps, or phone numbers are released. All spatial coordinates have been aggregated into weekly ego-level mobility indicators and coarse categorical campus zones.

1.1 Download Datasets

1.1.1 1. Spatial Mobility Metrics (Ego-Level)

Longitudinal panel (\(N = 16,144\) ego-weeks) tracking weekly radius of gyration, spatial mobility entropy, predictability of daily movement patterns, and time spent on campus.

Download Compressed Mobility (.csv.gz, 321 KB) Download Spatial Mobility (.csv, 895 KB) Download R Dataset (.rds, 294 KB) Download Stata Dataset (.dta, 1.4 MB)

1.1.2 2. Categorical Campus Zones (Ego-Level)

Longitudinal panel (\(N = 16,144\) ego-weeks) tracking percentage of time allocated across 6 coarse campus and geographic zones.

Download Compressed Zones (.csv.gz, 222 KB) Download Campus Zones (.csv, 1.0 MB) Download R Dataset (.rds, 193 KB) Download Stata Dataset (.dta, 1.8 MB)

1.2 Metric Definitions

1.2.1 Spatial Mobility Indicators

Variable Type Description
egoid Integer Standard 5-digit student participant identifier
study_week Integer Continuous study week index (Week 1 = Aug 22, 2011)
year Integer Calendar year
iso_week Integer ISO 8601 calendar week number
radius_of_gyration_km Numeric Root-mean-square distance (\(r_g\) in km) from the student’s center of mass during that week: \(\sqrt{\frac{1}{N}\sum (\mathbf{r}_i - \bar{\mathbf{r}})^2}\)
mobility_entropy Numeric Shannon entropy (\(S = -\sum p_j \log_2 p_j\) in bits) across \(\approx 200\text{m}\) spatial grid cells visited. Higher entropy indicates dispersed, exploratory movement; lower entropy indicates routine, concentrated locations
normalized_entropy Numeric Mobility entropy normalized by maximum possible entropy: \(S / \log_2(K)\) (\(0.0\) to \(1.0\))
time_on_campus_pct Numeric Percentage of recorded location fixes located within the Notre Dame campus perimeter (\(0.0\%\) to \(100.0\%\))
distinct_locations_count Integer Count of distinct \(\approx 200\text{m}\) spatial grid cells visited during the week
max_distance_from_campus_km Numeric Peak distance reached in kilometers from the Notre Dame Golden Dome center
total_location_records Integer Total valid GPS and network fixes recorded for that student-week

1.3 Categorical Campus Zones

Raw coordinate readings are projected into six coarse, mutually exclusive campus and geographic zones using spatial bounding boxes:

  1. Dorm: Residential quads and student dormitories (North Quad, South Quad, West Quad, Mod Quad, Carroll Hall).
  2. Academic Buildings: Main campus core, classrooms, lecture halls, departmental buildings, and laboratories (Main Quad / Golden Dome, DeBartolo Hall, Mendoza College of Business, Jordan Hall of Science, Fitzpatrick/Cushing Engineering, Nieuwland Science Hall).
  3. Library: Hesburgh Library and immediate surrounding academic plaza.
  4. Athletic Facilities: Notre Dame Stadium, Joyce Center / Purcell Pavilion, Compton Family Ice Arena, Rolfs Athletics, Guglielmino Complex, Loftus Sports Center, and outdoor athletic fields.
  5. Off-Campus / South Bend: Greater South Bend and Mishawaka areas outside the campus perimeter (\(\le 15\text{ km}\) from campus center, e.g. Eddy Street Commons, off-campus apartments, downtown South Bend).
  6. Traveling / Away: Locations \(> 15\text{ km}\) from campus (e.g. hometown visits, breaks, internships, study trips).

1.3.1 Zone Panel Schema

Variable Type Description
egoid Integer Standard 5-digit student participant identifier
study_week Integer Continuous study week index
year Integer Calendar year
iso_week Integer ISO calendar week number
pct_dorm Numeric Percentage of weekly fixes recorded in student dormitories (\(0.0\%\) to \(100.0\%\))
pct_academic Numeric Percentage of weekly fixes recorded in academic buildings & core (\(0.0\%\) to \(100.0\%\))
pct_library Numeric Percentage of weekly fixes recorded in Hesburgh Library (\(0.0\%\) to \(100.0\%\))
pct_athletics Numeric Percentage of weekly fixes recorded in athletic facilities & stadiums (\(0.0\%\) to \(100.0\%\))
pct_off_campus Numeric Percentage of weekly fixes recorded in Off-Campus / South Bend area (\(0.0\%\) to \(100.0\%\))
pct_traveling Numeric Percentage of weekly fixes recorded while Traveling / Away from South Bend (\(0.0\%\) to \(100.0\%\))
primary_zone Character The single most frequented zone for the student during that week
total_zone_records Integer Total location observations evaluated for zone allocation

1.4 Sample Data Overview

Show Code 
library(readr)
library(dplyr)
library(knitr)

mob <- read_csv("Data/weekly_spatial_mobility_ego_metrics_longitudinal.csv", n_max = 6, show_col_types = FALSE)
kable(mob, caption = "Sample Rows: Weekly Spatial Mobility Metrics")
zones <- read_csv("Data/weekly_campus_zones_ego_metrics_longitudinal.csv", n_max = 6, show_col_types = FALSE)
kable(zones, caption = "Sample Rows: Weekly Campus Zones Panel")
Table 1: Sample Rows: Weekly Campus Zones Panel
egoid study_week year iso_week radius_of_gyration_km mobility_entropy normalized_entropy time_on_campus_pct distinct_locations_count max_distance_from_campus_km total_location_records
10060 7 2011 40 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 100.00 1 0.73 49
10060 8 2011 41 72.0705 1.5581 0.5194 74.40 8 166.94 1914
10060 9 2011 42 67.4701 2.4155 0.8604 20.42 7 166.94 2243
10060 10 2011 43 2.0211 1.9573 0.6972 77.30 7 16.64 2220
10060 11 2011 44 0.2496 1.8389 0.6550 100.00 7 0.76 2517
10060 12 2011 45 0.0042 0.0000 0.0000 100.00 1 0.56 2231
egoid study_week year iso_week pct_dorm pct_academic pct_library pct_athletics pct_off_campus pct_traveling primary_zone total_zone_records
10060 7 2011 40 0.00 100.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00 Academic Buildings 49
10060 8 2011 41 2.30 72.10 0 0.00 0.52 25.08 Academic Buildings 1914
10060 9 2011 42 0.00 20.42 0 0.00 0.00 79.58 Traveling / Away 2243
10060 10 2011 43 6.13 71.17 0 0.00 21.31 1.40 Academic Buildings 2220
10060 11 2011 44 0.52 83.67 0 15.81 0.00 0.00 Academic Buildings 2517
10060 12 2011 45 0.00 100.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00 Academic Buildings 2231