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    A problem in human dynamics: modelling the population density of a social space

    Levene, Mark and Fenner, Trevor (2020) A problem in human dynamics: modelling the population density of a social space. Journal of Building Performance Simulation 13 (1), pp. 112-121. ISSN 1940-1493.

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    Abstract

    Human dynamics and sociophysics suggest statistical models that may explain and provide us with better insight into social phenomena. Here we tackle the problem of determining the distribution of the population density of a social space over time by modelling the dynamics of agents entering and exiting the space as a birth-death process. We show that, for a simple agent-based model in which the probabilities of entering and exiting the space depends on the number of agents currently present in the space, the population density of the space follows a gamma distribution. We also provide empirical evidence supporting the validity of the model by applying it to a data set of occupancy traces of a common space in an office building.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis, available online at the link above.
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): human dynamics, birth-death process, occupancy density, social space
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Data Analytics, Birkbeck Institute for
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 29 Nov 2019 08:03
    Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 12:47
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/30115

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