The Relationship Between Urban Morphology and the Citizens' Social Media Footprints: A case study on Tokyo

Urban form and urban function are closely related – and so are daily activities, interests, and concerns of urban citizens. While remote sensing data nowadays allow for the documentation of changes of the urban form on a global scale, and data on urban functions is readily available from multiple geodata sources, data on activities, interests, and concerns of urban dwellers are less accessible. This study relies on social media data in combination with earth observation-based mapping products to explore the relationship between social media (i.e., Twitter, now known as X) posts and urban morphology. Choosing the megacity Tokyo, Japan, as an example, our results revealed significant correlations between topics discussed on Twitter and urban morphologies. In high-rise areas the dominant topics were related to tourism, culture, and commerce, while in low-and mid-rise areas the dominant topics were more likely connected to daily life activities. These findings demonstrate a complex interaction between topics discussed on social media, urban morphology, and urban functions, highlighting the potential of social media data as a valuable resource for capturing the citizens’ interests or topics discussed.