A pre-processing and network analysis of GPS tracking data

Global Positioning System (GPS) devices afford the opportunity to collect accurate data on unit movements from temporal and spatial perspectives. With a special focus on GPS technology in travel surveys, this paper proposes: (1) two algorithms for the pre-processing of GPS data in order to deal with outlier identification and missing data imputation; (2) a clustering approach to recover the main points of interest from GPS trajectories; and (3) a weighted-directed network, which incorporates the most relevant characteristics of the GPS trajectories at an aggregate level. A simulation study shows the goodness-of-fit of the imputation data algorithm and the robustness of the clustering algorithm. The proposed algorithms are then applied to three cases studies relating to the mobility of cruise passengers in urban contexts.