iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

We've started the Autumn season with a blast by hosting multiple visiting researchers in Helsinki 🍂 First, Anne Bumiller visited us from Germany! She's a data scientist in Outdooractive, an outdoor recreation platform. blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog...

blogs.helsinki.fi

https://blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geography/2026/08/28/anne-bumiller-data-scientist-from-outdooractive-visits-dgl/

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Paper alert! ❗ What do social media posts reveal about the importance of nature in the Canary Islands, a hotspot of both biodiversity and tourism? New paper by @matabatchi.bsky.social looks into it with both spatial and visual analyses. Dig in: doi.org/10.1002/pan3... @helsinki.fi

A figure from the paper. It's a 2-dimensional pointcloud where the clusters are a particular type of activity, landscape or other topic emerging from the posts.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

A very productive and inspiring week in Cambridge! We would like to thank Professor Andrew Balmford and the Conservation Science Group, as well as the wider community in the David Attenborough building for being such wonderful hosts. Read more about the visit in the blog post. 🌸 🦉 🌍️

blogs.helsinki.fi

Spring visit to Cambridge: from FOOTPRINTS project meetings to British birding – Digital Geography Lab blog

University of Helsinki

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Digitaalisilla jalanjäljillä ymmärrystä puistojen ja luontoalueiden käytöstä -tapahtuma järjestetään uudella ajankohdalla Tiedekulmassa! 📅 Ke 22.4.2026 klo 13–15 📍 Tiedekulma, Yliopistonkatu 4 (etäosallistuminen on mahdollista) ☕Kahvia ja pullaa. Ilmoittaudu mukaan!

lyyti.fi

Digitaalisilla jalanjäljillä ymmärrystä puistojen ja luontoalueiden käytöstä

Luonnon virkistyskäytön suosio on kasvanut ja sen merkitys ihmisten terveydelle ja hyvinvoinnille on tunnistettu laajasti. Kävijämäärien lisääntyessä ja käyttäjäkunnan moninaistuessa tarvitaan…

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Vielä ehtii 🚨 Ensi keskiviikkona 11.2. klo 13–15 Tiedekulmassa huippututkimusta ja huippukeskustelua luonnon virkistyskäytöstä, kävijäseurannasta ja digitaalisista jalanjäljistä. Lopuksi pullakahvit! Ilmoittautumislinkki -> www.lyyti.fi/reg/Digitaal...

Digitaalisilla jalanjäljllä ymmärrystä puistojen ja luontoalueiden käytöstä -tapahtumaa mainostava juliste. Tapahtuma 11.2.2026, klo 13–15 Tiedekulmassa Helsingissä.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Spencer Wood from the Outdoor Recreation & Data Lab at the University of Washington (UW) joins DGL as a visiting fellow this academic spring term 👋 Thank you to the University of Helsinki to supporting this visit through the 2025 US Visiting Fellowship Programme!! Welcome to DGL Spencer ❤️.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

✨We're growing!! ✨ 🎓 Researcher Juulia Lehtinen has rejoined DGL to pursue Doctoral Research under the supervision of Tuuli Toivonen as part of the GREENTRAVEL project. Learn more about Juulia's work here: blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog... Welcome Juulia!! ❤️ 🎉

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Digitaaliset jalanjäljet tarjoavat uusia mahdollisuuksia tuottaa ajantasaista ja monipuolista tietoa luonnon virkistyskäytöstä. Tule kuulemaan ja keskustelemaan aiheesta tapahtumassamme! 📅 ke 11.2.2026 📍 Tiedekulma 🔗 Lue lisää: tapahtumat.helsinki.fi/fi-FI/page/6...

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Mikä on Helsingin sometetuin viheralue? Missä lenkkeillään, mistä otetaan lintukuvia? Missä käydään ympäri vuoden ja mitkä ovat kesäkohteita? Mm. näitä sivusimme yhteishankkeessamme massadatoista ja Helsingin viheralueiden käytöstä. Lisää tietoa blogistamme! blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog...

Kuvakaappaus hankkeen loppuraportin kannesta, lukee "Viheralueiden käyttö Helsingissä". Kuvassa Töölönlahti kesällä.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 28 - Black Friday Black Friday or Bird Friday? We think that birdwatching is better than impulsive shopping - even in November. Our map shows the 1512 observations in Finland that eBird users have posted over the past Black Fridays (2015-2024). @matabatchi & Sini Ruohomäki

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Together with Metsähallitus Parks and Wildlife Services we propose operationalizing the use of mobile big data for visitor monitoring and the management of outdoor recreation. Read more from our blog post: lnkd.in/dGYn2gvW

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 20 - Water: An Australian River Alphabet Inspired by Katie Holten's Irish Tree Alphabet 🌳 Unsure of any Australian river names beginning with 'X' and 'Z'. River centrelines: www.hydrosheds.org River catchments: ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/s... (c) Rory Taylor

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

📢 GREENTRAVEL Virtual Reality Technical Report Released! 📄Read more here: blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog... 📖 Check the report out here: helda.helsinki.fi/items/395be1... #UrbanResearch #VirtualReality #ActiveTravel #SmartCities #StreetGreenery

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

#30daymapchallenge 17: A new tool Helsinki enjoyed a grand total of 12 minutes of sunshine in November (1.–13.11). No better time to remember that yes, the sun does still exists. This map shows Helsinki's shadiest / sunniest places. New tool? #GRASSGIS solar modelling. By @tadusko.bsky.social

A map of Helsinki's urban core. It shows which areas are in the shade on a clear day in mid-June. Hietaranta beach and Töölönlahti bay are highlighted with photos, since they are have some of the sunniest spots on the map.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 10 - Air: Common Swift (Apus Apus) sightings in Finland in 2025 from eBird (+one Taylor Swift (Private Jet))

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 4 - My Data The 2025 citybike season in Helsinki has come to an end last week. As an avid user of the bike sharing system, Robert Klein has plotted his more than 350 trips of this year's season on a map. #bikesharing #cycling #mobility

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 1 - Points Creating a #centroid is not as trivial as you might think! If you are dealing with regional population data, the locational difference between a regular geometric centroid and a population-weighted centroid can be vast! Map by @waeiski.bsky.social #GIS #QGIS

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

📢 Come join us!! We are looking for a project planner to coordinate our new UrbanISE VR Proof of Concept, funded by @erc.europa.eu and based at the @helsinki.fi. 🏙️ Work at the forefront of applied Virtual Reality research in cities! 📝 Read more and apply here: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

jobs.helsinki.fi

Project planner to The Digital Geography Lab

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Our collaboration with Metsähallitus is moving ahead even more efficiently and with greater impact as we have signed MoU with Metsähallitus Parks & Wildlife Finland to deepen our research cooperation and streamline the two-way sharing of data and knowledge. blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog...

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Do you ever use your mobile phone when spending time outdoors? The answer is probably yes. In that case, you leave digital footprints about your visit. 🦶 How are these data useful for the sustainable management of nature areas? 👉 Watch our video for that and more! www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U5G...

youtube.com

Mobile Big Data For Understanding People in Nature

What are digital footprints and how can they be useful for managers of nature recreation areas? In this video, researchers from the Digital Geography Lab, University of Helsinki, explain how digital…

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Reposted by Digital Geography Lab

Oleksandr Karasov @karasov.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

In our new @ijgis.bsky.social paper, @ollejarv.bsky.social and I analysed 9M geolocated tweets from the Greater Region of Luxembourg within the #BORDERSPACE project at the @digigeolab.bsky.social, funded by the Research Council of Finland and @koneensaatio.fi.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Our lab is growing! We're super happy to introduce Anna Saarinen, who joins DGL to support coordination and management of the Geoportti Research Infrastructure!! 🌟 Learn more about Anna here 👉 👉 blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog.... Welcome Anna! We're very excited to be working with you 💚

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Tuomas Väisänen 📼🧟 @waeiski.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Hei #sinitaivas tarvitsemme osanottajia tulevaan työpajaamme! Jos aluekehitys, aluepolitiikka ja muuttoliikkeet kiinnostavat etenkin kun kyseessä on #Suomi ja tarkemmin itäiset ja pohjoiset osat, niin mukaan vaan! #Finland #Finnish #Region #Europe #EU

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Hei sinä Itä- tai Pohjois-Suomalainen! Kiinnostaako sinua kotiseutusi aluekehitys ja tulevaisuus? Tule mukaan työpajaamme! 🗓️ Syyskuun 12. päivä 2025 ⏰ Kello 11:00 – 12:30 Osallistumistiedot blogissamme: blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog... #Savo #Lappi #Kainuu #Alue #Tulevaisuus #Mikkeli

English: A map of Europe and its NUTS 2 regions with Eastern and Northern Finland highlighted. At the bottom there are the logos of Mobi-Twin research project and the European Union.

Suomeksi: Kartta Euroopasta NUTS 2 -alueineen ja Itä- ja Pohjois-Suomen alue on korostettuna. Alareunassa on Mobi-Twin -tutkimushankkeen ja Euroopan Unionin logot.

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Tuomas Väisänen 📼🧟 @waeiski.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

What a cool conference #ERSA2025 was! Many sessions from @mobi-twin-project.bsky.social project, lots of new people, interesting research, and great food! It was my first time at #ERSA and hopefully one of many to come!

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Tuomas Väisänen 📼🧟 @waeiski.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Wrapping up the second day of #ERSA2025 we have @ollejarv.bsky.social from @digigeolab.bsky.social presenting his work on using #BigData describing #mobility of people to assess #CrossBorder integration in #Europe.

Olle explaining how to delineate functional border regions using mobile big data and kernel density estimation.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Summer in Helsinki always brings smiles to our faces, as do the scholars that visit and collaborate with us 😊 We're thrilled to introduce Francesc Comalada, a PhD Researcher who visits us this autumn from the Catalan Institute of Water Research! Learn more here 👉 blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog...

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Our open course on #cartography and #GIS was run for the second year. Kamyar reflects back on this year and the course principles: how we focus not (only) on building technical capabilities, but on maps as means of visual storytelling: Read more here! blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog...

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

📢 New Paper Out! Led by our very own Kerli Müürisepp 👉 “Spatial Integration or Isolation? Capturing the Rhythms of Daily Lives Across Neighbourhoods in Helsinki Using Mobile Phone Data” in Population, Space and Place! 📄 Read the open access article here: doi.org/10.1002/psp....!

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

We are very happy to congratulate our very own @ollejarv.bsky.social for receiving the Research Council of Finland Award on his work on #CrossBorder #Mobility #Transnationalism #Segregation and #NatureRecreation using #BigData such as #SocialMedia and #MobilePhone data.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Robert Klein presented his cool work on exposure to greenery during everyday travel at #LBS20205 Photo by Davi Gressler

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Location Based Services conference #LBS2025 continues with @miladmzdh.bsky.social presenting his work on characterizing the attractiveness of regions in Europe.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Rounding the day off was @waeiski.bsky.social who presented his work on regional student mobility and how Covid-19 has affected the regional structure of the flow network at #LBS2025. Photo by Oleksandr Karasov.

Tuomas presents his findings on the structural changes in regional student mobility in Europe.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Our visiting researcher Davi Gressler presents his work on assessing realized 15-minute trips in US cities and comparing that to trips that were longer but could have been made in 15 minutes using SafeGraph data. #15MinuteCity #Segregation

Davi explaining the 15 minute city concept.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Next up is @tadusko.bsky.social presenting his work on the rise and fall of Flickr and use of its data in geographical analyses at #LBS2025 conference.

Tatu presents his work on using Flickr for geographical analyses and whether it is actually a good idea after all.

Tatu showing how the popularity of Flickr has diminished but research using Flickr data has increased.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Next up at #LBS2025 is our alumni member @karasov.bsky.social presenting his work on exploring cultural ecosystem services in #Ukraine using #PPGIS data collected from #Telegram.

Oleksandr describing the context of his study at Location Based Services conference.

Oleksandr showing preliminary results from the first month of data collection.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Our amazing Leyi Xu presents her work on place modeling using Place2Vec to capture euclidean and semantic aspects of POI information at #LBS2025

Leyi explaining the methodology related to assessing semantic similarity of points-of-interest.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Our brilliant @matabatchi.bsky.social is presenting his work on quantifying the role of nature in tourism on global and regional scales at #LBS2025.

Matti presenting his results from the Canary Islands.

Matti presenting his work on global flows of nature-based tourism.

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Tuomas Väisänen 📼🧟 @waeiski.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Second day of #LBS2025 is about to start and so are the @digigeolab.bsky.social presentations.

The scientific entourage of the Digital Geography Lab members and alumni in front of the Dipoli building at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland.

Front row from the left: Henrikki Tenkanen, Davi Gressler, Leyi Xu

Back row from the left: Oleksandr Karasov, Milad Malekzadeh, Robert Klein, Tatu Leppämäki, Matti Hästbacka and yours truly.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Exciting milestone for our GREENTRAVEL team!! We’ve officially wrapped up data collection for our VR cycling experiments—with an impressive 151 participants 🚴‍♀️ Juulia Lehtinen explains more 👉 blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog... Now it’s time to dive into data analysis with fresh excitement!

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Tuuli Toivonen 🇺🇦🌏🌎🌍🕊️ @tuulitoivonen.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Celebration in our #GREENTRAVEL project @digigeolab.bsky.social #VR experiments now concluded!! 🚴🏻‍♀️🌲🌳 🥳 Two months, 151 participants, a lot of learning. Kudos to the incredible team Silviya Korpilo, Om Ravindran, Ashish Shete, Jussi Torkko, Sini Ruohomäki, Juulia Lehtinen and Mansi Garg 💎🤩

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Mobility viewpoint needs to be recognized in urban greening policies! 🚴‍🌳🏙️ New #GREENTRAVEL paper out! A perspective paper by Silviya Korpilo et al., published in Ambio, describes how people’s contact with urban nature often happens when moving through space. Interested? Read the paper here 👇

doi.org

Restoring nature, enhancing active mobility: The role of street greenery in the EU’s 2024 restoration law - Ambio

This article argues for the importance of integrating a mobility perspective into urban greenspace planning and practice related to the 2024 EU Nature Restoration Law. Street greenery can play an impo...

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

The onset of spring in Helsinki always inspires and energizes us, as do the amazing researchers who come to visit us! We're delighted to introduce Eline Rega, a PhD researcher from KU Leuven in Belgium who visits us this April! 🤩 Learn more about Eline here 👉

blogs.helsinki.fi

Meet Eline Rega, a PhD researcher from KU Leuven! – Digital Geography Lab blog

Digital Geography Lab blog

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

📢 New master's thesis finalised! "Activity tracking data for protected area visitor monitoring: A case study of mountain biking using Strava Metro", by Mikko Kangasmaa 😍 🎓 Find the thesis here: helda.helsinki.fi/items/73ae87... 📄 Find Mikko's summary here: blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog...

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Tuomas Väisänen 📼🧟 @waeiski.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Are doing #research using #Flickr data? Are you aware of the drawbacks? Check out this cool article where researchers critically assess the use of Flickr #SocialMedia data in research on #conservation and #recreation in #nature. Key insights for #NationalPark and #ProtectedArea management.

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Reposted by Digital Geography Lab

Tatu Leppämäki @tadusko.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

🚨 NEW ARTICLE 🚨 How many photos are uploaded to Flickr? Where? By who? Why does any of it matter? We explore the rise and fall of #Flickr in this @digigeolab.bsky.social paper by yours truly, @vuoggis.bsky.social, Johanna Eklund, Anna Hausmann & @tuulitoivonen.bsky.social out now! buff.ly/0hJjPsm

Distribution of the use of Flickr. Three heat maps that show globes roughly centered in Europe and Africa, South-East Asia and the Americas. Use is centered in Europe and North America, and urban areas.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Over 2.2 million regional student mobility flows across Europe from 2014 to 2022, published as #OpenData in Scientific Data! Do check out this cool new work on Erasmus+ student mobility from our very own @waeiski.bsky.social, @miladmzdh.bsky.social, Oula Inkeröinen, and @ollejarv.bsky.social!

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Tuomas Väisänen 📼🧟 @waeiski.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

🚨🌍 NEW ARTICLE 🌍🚨 We geocoded the #mobility of over 2 million #Erasmus students across #Europe from 2014 to 2022 with @miladmzdh.bsky.social, Oula Inkeröinen & @ollejarv.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1038/s415... @mobi-twin-project.bsky.social @digigeolab.bsky.social @springernature.com #GIScience

Schematic of the workflow in the article. Leftmost panel shows a representation of the input data with high diversity in the types of place names resulting from typographical errors, character encoding errors, language-specific spellings and use of different scripts. The centre panel shows the general workflow from preprocessing to geocoding and finally to validation. The rightmost panel shows the spatially enriched Erasmus+ mobility data on a map with edge-bundled flows representing different intensities of student mobility across NUTS 3 regions in Europe.

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

📣 Great News!!! ...🚲...🚲...🚲... PhD researcher Xiao Cai has published a new article "Differences in bike-sharing usage and its associations with station-surrounding characteristics: A multi-group analysis using machine learning techniques”! 🎉 Learn more here: blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog...

blogs.helsinki.fi

New paper out on demographic-specific factors influencing bike-sharing usage! – Digital Geography Lab blog

Digital Geography Lab blog

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Digital Geography Lab @digigeolab.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

We're growing! We're excited to introduce Mansi Garg, a technical assistant providing vital support in the implementation of #VirtualReality experiments within our ERC-funded GREENTRAVEL project 🌟🌟. We spoke to Mansi to learn more 👉 blogs.helsinki.fi/digital-geog...

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