GeoJitter: a flexible toolkit for region-aware node jittering in spatial networks
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Authors
Fiore, Nina
Neumann, Sebastian
Moores, Geoffrey
Issue Date
2026-01-28
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journal-article
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Abstract
GeoJitter is an open-source Python package for region-aware randomization of node locations in spatial networks, designed to preserve network structure while mitigating privacy risks and supporting spatial visualization of incomplete or uncertain data. Existing open-source randomization techniques rarely incorporate geospatial boundaries, limiting their applicability for spatial analysis; GeoJitter addresses this gap and provides tiling solutions when region data is unavailable. Performance was compared against Radius and K-Nearest Neighbor randomization across 100 trials on Brightkite and Gowalla networks; structural metrics remained stable with the most disparity in average path length, which changed by 0.14–0.28 (versus 0.06–0.09 for benchmarks). Changes in betweenness were near zero (− 0.0001 overall), clustering coefficient shifted by approximately 0.009, and modularity by − 0.015. These results demonstrate comparability to established methods while introducing a flexible, region-aware approach for privacy-sensitive spatial analysis.</jats:p>
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Citation
Fiore, N., Neumann, S. & Moores, G. GeoJitter: a flexible toolkit for region-aware node jittering in spatial networks. Discov Netw 2, 1 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44354-025-00014-x
Publisher
Discover Networks
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ISSN
3004-9792