With increasing urbanisation and the accompanying trends in human mobility and traffic patterns, Sri Lanka is entering an era that demands greater flexibility and responsiveness from the local transport planning apparatus. The recent global data revolution has seen large transaction-generated datasets being leveraged to understand large-scale patterns in human behaviour. Transaction-generated mobile phone network data is one of the few forms of data with sufficient coverage of the population of Sri Lanka that provides an opportunity to apply similar techniques. The paper assesses the potential of this data for delivering insights that can enhance the traditional transport planning process in Sri Lanka through a series of analyses that quantifies and interprets human movement in urban regions.

Maldeniya, M.K.D.T., Lokanathan, S., & Kumarage, A.S. (2016). An assessment of mobile network big data-based insights for transport planning in Sri Lanka [Extended Abstract]. In T.L. Gunaruwan (Ed.), Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Research for Transport and Logistics Industry 2016 (pp. 21-23). Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics. https://slstl.lk/r4tli-2016/