{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,19]],"date-time":"2026-03-19T16:59:32Z","timestamp":1773939572270,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,30]],"date-time":"2018-07-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1532908800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000781","name":"European Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["714087 - So2Sat"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["714087 - So2Sat"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000781","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJGI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Every city is\u2014quoting Plato\u2014divided into two, one city of the poor, the other of the rich. In this study we test whether the economic urban divide is reflected in the digital sphere of cities. Because, especially in dynamically growing cities, ready-to-use comprehensive data sets on the urban poor, as well as on the digital divide, are not existent, we use proxies: we spatially delimit the urban poor using settlement characteristics derived from remote sensing data. The digital divide is targeted by geolocated Twitter data. Based on a sample of eight cities across the globe, we spatially test whether areas of the urban poor are more likely to be digital cold spots. Over the course of time, we analyze whether temporal signatures in poor urban areas differ from formal environments. We find that the economic divide influences digital participation in public life. Less residents of morphological slums are found to be digitally oriented (\u201care digitally left behind\u201d) as compared to residents of formal settlements. However, among the few twitter users in morphological slums, we find their temporal behavior similar to the twitter users in formal settlements. In general, we conclude this discussion, this study exemplifies that the combination of both heterogeneous data sets allows for extending the capabilities of individual disciplines for research towards urban poverty.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi7080304","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,30]],"date-time":"2018-07-30T11:55:08Z","timestamp":1532951708000},"page":"304","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":43,"title":["Are the Poor Digitally Left Behind? Indications of Urban Divides Based on Remote Sensing and Twitter Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4360-9126","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hannes","family":"Taubenb\u00f6ck","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), M\u00fcnchner Stra\u00dfe 20, 82234 We\u00dfling, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7342-4440","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jeroen","family":"Staab","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), M\u00fcnchner Stra\u00dfe 20, 82234 We\u00dfling, Germany"}]},{"given":"Xiao Xiang","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), M\u00fcnchner Stra\u00dfe 20, 82234 We\u00dfling, Germany"},{"name":"Technical University of Munich (TUM), Signal Processing in Earth Observation (SiPEO), 80333 Munich, Germany"}]},{"given":"Christian","family":"Gei\u00df","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), M\u00fcnchner Stra\u00dfe 20, 82234 We\u00dfling, Germany"}]},{"given":"Stefan","family":"Dech","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), M\u00fcnchner Stra\u00dfe 20, 82234 We\u00dfling, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5967-1894","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael","family":"Wurm","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), M\u00fcnchner Stra\u00dfe 20, 82234 We\u00dfling, Germany"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Hollis, L. (2013). Cities Are Good for You: The Genius of the Metropolis, Bloomsbury Press. [1st ed.]."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"UN-Habitat (2009). Planning Sustainable Cities: Global Report on Human Settlements 2009, Routledge."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"UN-Habitat (2016). Urbanization and Development Emerging Futures: World Cities Report, United Nations Publication."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Milanovic, B. (2016). Die Ungleiche Welt: Migration, das Eine Prozent und Die Zukunft der Mittelschicht, Suhrkamp."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"International Organization for Migration (2015). World Migration Report 2015: Migrants and Cities: New Partnerships to Manage Mobility, International Organization for Migration (IOM)."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Tacoli, C., McGranahan, G., and Satterthwaite, D. (2015). Urbanisation, Rural-Urban Migration and Urban Poverty, International Institute for Environment and Development."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Taubenb\u00f6ck, H., and Wurm, M. (2015). Ich wei\u00df, dass ich nichts wei\u00df\u2014Bev\u00f6lkerungssch\u00e4tzung in der Megacity Mumbai. Globale Urbanisierung, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-662-44841-0_18"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"130","DOI":"10.1080\/15230406.2013.777137","article-title":"Beyond the geotag: Situating \u2018big data\u2019 and leveraging the potential of the geoweb","volume":"40","author":"Crampton","year":"2013","journal-title":"Cartogr. Geogr. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"OECD (2018, July 24). Poverty Rate (Indicator). Available online: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1787\/0fe1315d-en.","DOI":"10.1787\/0fe1315d-en"},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Sliuzas, R., Mboup, G., and de Sherbinin, A. (2008). Report of the Expert Group Meeting on Slum Identification and Mapping, CIESIN, UN-Habitat, ITC."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bibi, S. (2005, November 01). Measuring Poverty in a Multidimensional Perspective: A Review of Literature. Available online: https:\/\/ssrn.com\/abstract=850487.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.850487"},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Harvey, D. (2013). Rebellische St\u00e4dte: Vom Recht auf Stadt zur Urbanen Revolution, Suhrkamp."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Barber, B.R. (2014). If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities, Yale University Press."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jue.2006.12.004","article-title":"Why do the poor live in cities? The role of public transportation","volume":"63","author":"Glaeser","year":"2008","journal-title":"J. Urban. Econ."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"150","DOI":"10.1016\/j.apgeog.2018.02.002","article-title":"The morphology of the Arrival City\u2014A global categorization based on literature surveys and remotely sensed data","volume":"92","author":"Kraff","year":"2018","journal-title":"Appl. Geogr."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Perlman, J.E. (2018, June 05). Marginality from Myth to Reality\u2014The Favelas of Rio de Janeiro 1968\u20132005. Available online: http:\/\/advantronsample2.com\/Marginality_from_Myth_to_Reality.pdf."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103","DOI":"10.1177\/0956247816689218","article-title":"Developing risk or resilience? Effects of slum upgrading on the social contract and social cohesion in Kibera, Nairobi","volume":"29","author":"Mitra","year":"2017","journal-title":"Environ. Urban."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11","DOI":"10.1177\/095624789500700118","article-title":"Conceptualizing urban poverty","volume":"7","author":"Wratten","year":"1995","journal-title":"Environ. Urban."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kuffer, M., Pfeffer, K., and Sliuzas, R. (2016). Slums from Space\u201415 Years of Slum Mapping Using Remote Sensing. Remote Sens., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8060455"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"154","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compenvurbsys.2011.11.001","article-title":"An ontology of slums for image-based classification","volume":"36","author":"Kohli","year":"2012","journal-title":"Comput. Environ. Urban Syst."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.1016\/j.apgeog.2012.11.016","article-title":"An approach to differentiate informal settlements using spectral, texture, geomorphology and road accessibility metrics","volume":"38","author":"Owen","year":"2013","journal-title":"Appl. Geogr."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Engstrom, R., Sandborn, A., Qin, Y., Burgdorfer, J., Stow, D., Weeks, J., and Graesser, J. (April, January 30). Mapping slums using spatial features in Accra, Ghana. Proceedings of the Urban Remote Sensing Event, 2015 Joint, Lausanne, Switzerland.","DOI":"10.1109\/JURSE.2015.7120494"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"190","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2017.03.030","article-title":"Slum mapping in polarimetric SAR data using spatial features","volume":"194","author":"Wurm","year":"2017","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1970","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2016.2519843","article-title":"Determining the Relationship between Census Data and Spatial Features Derived From High-Resolution Imagery in Accra, Ghana","volume":"9","author":"Sandborn","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.1080\/2150704X.2017.1384586","article-title":"Detecting social groups from space\u2014Assessment of remote sensing-based mapped morphological slums using income data","volume":"9","author":"Wurm","year":"2018","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Norris, P. (2001). Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide, Cambridge University Press.","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9781139164887"},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"44","article-title":"Are the economically poor information poor? Does the digital divide affect the homeless and access to information?","volume":"27","author":"Hersberger","year":"2003","journal-title":"Can. J. Inf. Libr. Sci."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"679","DOI":"10.1177\/0894439316671698","article-title":"The Digital Divide among Twitter Users and Its Implications for Social Research","volume":"35","author":"Blank","year":"2017","journal-title":"Soc. Sci. Comput. Rev."},{"key":"ref_29","first-page":"5","article-title":"Mapping the global Twitter heartbeat: The geography of Twitter","volume":"18","author":"Leetaru","year":"2013","journal-title":"First Monday"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"61","DOI":"10.1080\/15230406.2013.777139","article-title":"Spatial, temporal, and socioeconomic patterns in the use of Twitter and Flickr","volume":"40","author":"Li","year":"2013","journal-title":"Cartogr. Geogr. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"364","DOI":"10.1080\/02681102.2015.1011598","article-title":"Online Favela: The Use of Social Media by the Marginalized in Brazil","volume":"22","author":"Nemer","year":"2015","journal-title":"Inf. Technol. Dev."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Wyche, S.P., Forte, A., and Yardi Schoenebeck, S. (May, January 27). Hustling online: Understanding consolidated facebook use in an informal settlement in Nairobi. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Paris, France."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Klotz, M., Wurm, M., Zhu, X.X., and Taubenb\u00f6ck, H. (2017, January 6\u20138). Digital deserts on the ground and from space\u2014An experimental spatial analysis combining social network and earth observation data in megacity Mumbai. Proceedings of the Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event, Dubai, UAE.","DOI":"10.1109\/JURSE.2017.7924562"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Frias-Martinez, V., Soto, V., Hohwald, H., and Frias-Martinez, E. (2012, January 3\u20135). Characterizing Urban Landscapes Using Geolocated Tweets. Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust and 2012 International Confernece on Social Computing, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.","DOI":"10.1109\/SocialCom-PASSAT.2012.19"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"319","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2017.02.018","article-title":"Sensing the city with Instagram: Clustering geolocated data for outlier detection","volume":"78","author":"Vilas","year":"2017","journal-title":"Expert Syst. Appl."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"512","DOI":"10.1080\/00045608.2015.1018773","article-title":"Social Sensing: A New Approach to Understanding Our Socioeconomic Environments","volume":"105","author":"Liu","year":"2015","journal-title":"Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr."},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"Cranshaw, J., Schwartz, R., Hong, J.I., and Sadeh, N. (2012, January 4\u20137). The Livehoods Project: Utilizing Social Media to Understand the Dynamics of a City. Proceedings of the Sixth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Dublin, Ireland."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"280","DOI":"10.1177\/2043820613513392","article-title":"The quality of big (geo)data","volume":"3","author":"Goodchild","year":"2013","journal-title":"Dialogues Hum. Geogr."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"Morstatter, F., Pfeffer, J., Liu, H., and Carley, K.M. (2013, January 8\u201311). Is the Sample Good Enough? Comparing Data from Twitter\u2019s Streaming API with Twitter\u2019s Firehose. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Cambridge, MA, USA."},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Mislove, A., Lehmann, S., Ahn, Y.-Y., Onnela, J.-P., and Rosenquist, J.N. (2011, January 17\u201321). Understanding the Demographics of Twitter Users. Proceedings of the Fifth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Barcelona, Spain."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"305","DOI":"10.1080\/17549175.2015.1080752","article-title":"Digital neighborhoods","volume":"9","author":"Anselin","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Urban. Int. Res. Placemak. Urban. Sustain."},{"key":"ref_42","unstructured":"GADM (2018). Database of Global Administrative Areas, GADM."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"061702","DOI":"10.1117\/1.JRS.6.061702","article-title":"TanDEM-X mission\u2014New perspectives for the inventory and monitoring of global settlement patterns","volume":"6","author":"Esch","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Appl. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"191","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2016.03.001","article-title":"How good is the map? A multi-scale cross-comparison framework for global settlement layers: Evidence from Central Europe","volume":"178","author":"Klotz","year":"2016","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1164","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2012.2190383","article-title":"Image Based Characterization of Formal and Informal Neighborhoods in an Urban Landscape","volume":"5","author":"Graesser","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_46","unstructured":"Twitter Inc. (2017). Annual Report, Twitter Inc."},{"key":"ref_47","first-page":"145","article-title":"Analysis of variance; designed experiments","volume":"5","author":"Chambers","year":"1992","journal-title":"Stat. Model. S"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"141","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2016.01.006","article-title":"Phenopix: A R package for image-based vegetation phenology","volume":"220","author":"Filippa","year":"2016","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Engstrom, R., Hersh, J., and Newhouse, D. (2017). Poverty from Space: Using High-Resolution Satellite Imagery for Estimating Economic Well-Being, World Bank Group. Policy Research Working Papers.","DOI":"10.1596\/1813-9450-8284"},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-9671.2009.01152.x","article-title":"Accuracy of iPhone Locations: A Comparison of Assisted GPS, WiFi and Cellular Positioning","volume":"13","author":"Zandbergen","year":"2009","journal-title":"Trans. GIS"},{"key":"ref_51","unstructured":"Davis, M. (2007). Planet. der Slums, Assoziation A."},{"key":"ref_52","unstructured":"Fuchs, M. (2006). Slum als Projekt: Dharavi und die Falle der Marginalisierung. Mumbai\u2013Delhi\u2013Kolkata. Ann\u00e4herungen an die Megast\u00e4dte Indiens, Draupadi."}],"container-title":["ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2220-9964\/7\/8\/304\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T15:15:16Z","timestamp":1760195716000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2220-9964\/7\/8\/304"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,30]]},"references-count":52,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,8]]}},"alternative-id":["ijgi7080304"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ijgi7080304","relation":{},"ISSN":["2220-9964"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2220-9964","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,30]]}}}