Exploring relations between city regions based on mobile phone data

City regions often have great diversity in form and function. To better understand the role of each region, the relations between city regions need to be carefully studied. In this work, the human mobility relations between regions of Shanghai based on mobile phone data is explored. By formulating the regions as nodes in a network and the commuting between each pair of regions as link weights, the distribution of nodes degree, and spatial structures of communities in this relation network are studied. Statistics show that regions locate in urban centers and traffic hubs have significantly larger degrees. Moreover, two kinds of spatial structures of communities are found. In most communities, nodes are spatially neighboring. However, in the communities that cover traffic hubs, nodes often locate along corridors.