Points of Interest (POI)
a commentary on the state of the art, challenges, and prospects for the future
A. Psyllidis (TU Delft - Knowledge and Intelligence Design)
Song Gao (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Yingjie Hu (University at Buffalo (UB))
Eun-Kyeong Kim (Universitat Zurich)
Grant McKenzie (McGill University)
Ross Purves (Universitat Zurich)
May Yuan (University of Texas at Dallas)
Clio Andris (Georgia Institute of Technology)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
In this commentary, we describe the current state of the art of points of interest (POIs) as digital, spatial datasets, both in terms of their quality and affordings, and how they are used across research domains. We argue that good spatial coverage and high-quality POI features — especially POI category and temporality information — are key for creating reliable data. We list challenges in POI geolocation and spatial representation, data fidelity, and POI attributes, and address how these challenges may affect the results of geospatial analyses of the built environment for applications in public health, urban planning, sustainable development, mobility, community studies, and sociology. This commentary is intended to shed more light on the importance of POIs both as standalone spatial datasets and as input to geospatial analyses.
help_outline