Analysing people's (im-)mobility during climate-extremes and disasters: new evidence from Facebook data

Assessing human responses to extreme weather events is of great importance to plan for climate-related risks and improve disaster management. In this research, we investigate changes in mobility trends of Facebook users during the 2021 flood in Europe. We use advanced spatial-analytical techniques to identify hot spots of mobility change across Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg. We find heterogenous peaks of (im-)mobility across time and regions, with notable variability within hydrographic basins. Major changes of population density can also be detected before, during, and after the flood event. While caution must be taken regarding the representativeness of Facebook data, our findings remain valuable for guiding disaster management strategies in complementarity with other satellite-based datasets. These emphasise the value of data-sharing by tech companies and potentially opens up new opportunities for more coordinated responses to climate-extremes at the international level.