The nation’s top six nighttime economy hot spots are in New Taipei City, with Yonghe District (永和) at No. 1, followed by Banciao (板橋), Lujhou (蘆洲), Sanchong (三重), Jhonghe (中和) and Sinjhuang (新莊) districts, Ministry of the Interior data show.
Telecommunications and demographic data show that the number of people in these districts at night exceeds that of the areas during the day or the number of people registered to households there, the ministry said.
The ministry’s new “telecom signaling demographic data” combines information collected from mobile base stations with socioeconomic spatial data from shopping areas, bus stations, healthcare facilities and convenience stores.
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
It can be used to study the retail or nighttime economy, and can help inform policy decisions regarding medical and transportation needs, personnel assignments, disease prevention, fire control and housing, the ministry said.
People flow means business opportunities, and aside from regional factors, people flow at different times of the day can have different meanings, it said.
Its “nighttime economy potential hot spot map” was created by weighting factors, including the number of people in areas during certain times, the density of people staying during the night and population inflow, it said.
Rounding out the top 10 districts or townships with the highest nighttime economy index number, after the six in New Taipei City, are Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山), Taoyuan’s Taoyuan District (桃園) and Taichung’s South (南區) and North (北區) districts.
The telecom signaling demographic data can also be used to create a medical resource demand map, the ministry said.
For example, the data show that, aside from areas in the mountains, northern Taiwan has more medical resource demand than the rest of the nation, and accounting for the number of people in areas at night, Taipei’s Daan (大安) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts, along with Yonghe, have the greatest medical resource demand, it said.
The data can also be used to create a high population density disease infection risk index of districts, villages and boroughs, and can monitor shopping areas, traditional markets and night markets to help authorities warn or evacuate people from an area, or to inform vaccine distribution plans, it said.
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