PONE-D-24-11293Early Detection of Critical Urban Events using Mobile Phone Network DataPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Furno,

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The paper focuses on utilizing network signaling data (NSD) from mobile phone networks to detect anomalies in mobile traffic service consumption, enabling the early detection of critical urban events. The study aims to provide actionable information for urban and transportation planning, population census, and emergency response by analyzing mobile phone data,. The paper discusses the importance of understanding how individuals' behavior changes in response to emergencies and unknown conditions, highlighting the role of mobile phones as in-situ sensors. Various methodologies for real-time anomaly detection in mobile traffic service consumption are introduced, with a focus on the effectiveness of different detection thresholds and fusion methods. Overall, the paper presents a strong technical foundation and provides valuable insights into the potential of using NSD for anomaly detection in urban environments. However, there are some minor concerns:

1. Providing a detailed comparison with existing methods would help situate the research within the broader context of the field.

2. Including a discussion on the limitations of the proposed methodologies and potential areas for future research could enhance the paper's completeness.

3. Consider expanding on the implications of the findings for urban planning and emergency response strategies to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the practical applications of the research.

Reviewer #2: The article aims at identifying the occurrence of relevant city events, positive like concerts or negative like fires, leveraging the analysis of anonymized sequences of mobile network signaling usage patterns.

The difficulties in correlating the statistical detection of anomalies in signaling trends with the correspondent specific event happening in the city is touched, and probably is partially due also to the constraints of the analyzed signaling information (e.g. data user communication patterns are currently not only related to the operator services, like voice calls or SMS, but today leverage also a plethora of Internet based services, that are less “visible” at Mobile Operator signaling level).

Signaling generated by the usage of different Mobile Operator’ services appear to be considered as substantially independent, whereas in some cases different services could be correlated (e.g. number of paging and number of calls) or can be differently influenced by the type of event (e.g people asking for help during a terroristic attack inside a building could prefer texting in respect to a more audible voice call).

Authors, anyway, do not target the ambitious recognition of a specific event, but mainly “array of events”, and presented results are honestly recognized as “far from perfect” by authors itself.

Minor editorial comments:

• Does “To”, in “To of data on average per day”, mean Terabyte?

• What is the meaning (pgrf "Conclusion") of the “?” in “…upon 604 our previous work [? ]...” ?

• The acronym “DA” seems to be defined in page 9, but used also before definition.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Davide Micheli

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Early Detection of Critical Urban Events using Mobile Phone Network Data

PONE-D-24-11293R1

Dear Dr. Furno,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Luan Carlos de Sena Monteiro Ozelim, D.Sc.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors have meticulously addressed all the comments and suggestions provided, ensuring thorough revisions and comprehensive responses to enhance the overall quality and clarity of the manuscript.

Reviewer #2: the topic is quite interesting and the research is well reported. Moreover, All Question have been answered

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Davide Micheli

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