  This work introduces a new concept of functional areas called Mobility
Functional Areas (MFAs), i.e., the geographic zones highly interconnected
according to the analysis of mobile positioning data. The MFAs do not coincide
necessarily with administrative borders as they are built observing natural
human mobility and, therefore, they can be used to inform, in a bottom-up
approach, local transportation, health and economic policies. After presenting
the methodology behind the MFAs, this study focuses on the link between the
COVID-19 pandemic and the MFAs in Austria. It emerges that the MFAs registered
an average number of infections statistically larger than the areas in the rest
of the country, suggesting the usefulness of the MFAs in the context of
targeted re-escalation policy responses to this health crisis.
