Intermunicipal Travel Networks of Mexico (2020-2021)

TL;DR

This paper constructs and analyzes intermunicipal travel networks in Mexico during 2020-2021 using mobile data, revealing how Covid-19 restrictions and population size influenced travel patterns and network structures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dataset of directed, weighted travel networks between Mexican municipalities and analyzes their structural changes during the pandemic period.

Findings

Network features changed significantly during early 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Later pandemic events had a reduced impact on network structure.

Changes in network metrics correlated with population size and restrictions.

Abstract

We present a collection of networks that describe the travel patterns between municipalities in Mexico between 2020 and 2021. Using anonymized mobile device geo-location data we constructed directed, weighted networks representing the (normalized) volume of travels between municipalities. We analysed changes in global (graph total weight sum), local (centrality measures), and mesoscale (community structure) network features. We observe that changes in these features are associated with factors such as Covid-19 restrictions and population size. In general, events in early 2020 (when initial Covid-19 restrictions were implemented) induced more intense changes in network features, whereas later events had a less notable impact in network features. We believe these networks will be useful for researchers and decision makers in the areas of transportation, infrastructure planning, epidemic control and network science at large.