The latest outputs from researchers, alumni and friends at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA).
Here’s a lovely looking artistic map of London. Created by Ben Grib in a “watercolour” style and produced as a print on “natural” textured art paper with plenty of grain, the Graphic Watercolour Map shows the spaces between streets with a characteristic painted look, the tones varying from block to block. The remaining white space […]
Continue reading »City A.M. |
Forget HS2: Only radical education reform will rescue the Northern Powerhouse
City A.M. The author, Mike Batty, is an extremely distinguished professor in University College London’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. I work with Batty, so maybe this colours my view of his ideas. But despite many billions of pounds of public money … |
We recently co-authored a paper entitled “Lessons from the Ebola Outbreak: Action Items for Emerging Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response” in EcoHealth” with several other researchers from George Mason University. In the paper we discuss t…
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We recently co-authored a paper entitled “Lessons from the Ebola Outbreak: Action Items for Emerging Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response” in EcoHealth” with several other researchers from George Mason University. In the paper we discuss t…
Continue reading »CityMetric |
Infrastructure, integration, and what Gabon can teach cities about planning for the future
CityMetric Finally, our map of the week – which, I’ll be honest, we do no justice to whatsoever – is this magnificent piece of work by Duncan Smith of UCL’s Centre for Advanced spatial Analysis. It shows, at a glance, the growth of all the world’s major cities … |
CityMetric |
Sorry, but the Northern Powerhouse can’t cover the entire north
CityMetric Finally, our map of the week – which, I’ll be honest, we do no justice to whatsoever – is this magnificent piece of work by Duncan Smith of UCL’s Centre for Advanced spatial Analysis. It shows, at a glance, the growth of all the world’s major cities … |
Talk at ONS, Tichfield 25/2/16
Continue reading »We have a new scholarship opening at the Extreme Citizen Science group for a PhD student who will research in Human Computer Interaction and Spatial Data Quality for Online Civic Engagement. The studentship is linked and contextualised by the European Union H2020 funded project, WeGovNow! . This project will focus on the use of digital technologies for effectively … Continue reading New PhD Opportunity: Human Computer Interaction and Spatial Data Quality for Online Civic Engagement
CityMetric |
These interactive maps show North America’s Pacific Coast after the ice caps have melted
CityMetric Finally, our map of the week – which, I’ll be honest, we do no justice to whatsoever – is this magnificent piece of work by Duncan Smith of UCL’s Centre for Advanced spatial Analysis. It shows, at a glance, the growth of all the world’s major cities … |
Living Maps review is a new online journal about maps, map making and thinking of mapping (I’m on the editorial board of the journal). As the launch email describes: “map making as a democratic medium for visual artists, writers, social researchers and community activists. The journal has its roots in the highly successful series of … Continue reading Living Maps Review launched today
Chen Zhong is leading CASA’s work in measuring variability and regularity in big data from automated capture of travel demand on subway systems in three world cities. This paper in PLOS One is our first on a comparison of tap … Continue reading →
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named is a little website that I have recently co-written as part of an ongoing ESRC-funded project on UK surnames that is being conducted here at UCL Department of Geography. I put together the website and adapted for the UK some code on generating heatmaps showing regions of unusual popularity of a surname, that was … Continue reading named →
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Argotopolis is a map of London slang, created by Adam Dant (cartographer) and Jonathon Green (lexicographer). At first glance it looks like an ornate tree, look more closely and you’ll realise it is indeed a map, with Farringdon Road acting as the trunk of an “Old Oak” (aka the “Big Smoke”, aka London) – and […]
Continue reading »I have a new paper published in Computers Environment and Urban Systems- Online interactive thematic mapping: applications and techniques for socio-economic research. The paper reviews workflows for creating online thematic maps, and describes how several leading interactive mapping sites were created. The paper is open access so you can download the pdf for free. The paper…
CityMetric |
23 possible reasons why London’s Crossrail has just been renamed the Elizabeth Line
CityMetric Because Queen Elizabeth II is the longest reigning queen regnant (one who reigns in her own right, rather than one who is just married to a king) in human history. Because on 9 September 2015, she surpassed her great great grandmother Queen Victoria to … |
My PechaKucha talk at DataBeers : “Visualizing Geolocated Tweets: a Spatial Data Mining Approach”.
I attended the Cartographic Summit which took place at the Esri campus in Redlands, California, earlier this week. Some notes from the week, which was co-organised by Esri and the ICA (International Cartographic Association). Here are some notes about the event. The attendee list included some key names in modern cartography, including Cynthia Brewer, creator … Continue reading ICA/Esri Cartographic Summit →
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This day-long workshop aims to serve as a platform to discuss and showcase the complex issues associated with the analysis of social media contributions in the context of GIScience.
Spanning spatial footprints, social networks, and sociocultural themes, such data can support a variety of applications, ranging from disaster response and environmental monitoring to health informatics and digital citizenship. Given their variations in accuracy, the complex patterns of participation, and the constantly increasing data volumes, analyzing such data in a meaningful, reliable, and timely manner is a substantial challenge. The objective of this workshop is to showcase on-going research in the GIScience community on the analysis of social media content and thus support the emergence of a cohesive research agenda in our community.
We invite submissions of short papers (1,500-2,000 words) that present research related to the workshop theme. Examples of topics of particular interest include:
Workshop Format:
Organizers:
Website: http://geosocialanalysis.blogspot.com/p/about.html
This day-long workshop aims to serve as a platform to discuss and showcase the complex issues associated with the analysis of social media contributions in the context of GIScience.
Spanning spatial footprints, social networks, and sociocultural themes, such data can support a variety of applications, ranging from disaster response and environmental monitoring to health informatics and digital citizenship. Given their variations in accuracy, the complex patterns of participation, and the constantly increasing data volumes, analyzing such data in a meaningful, reliable, and timely manner is a substantial challenge. The objective of this workshop is to showcase on-going research in the GIScience community on the analysis of social media content and thus support the emergence of a cohesive research agenda in our community.
We invite submissions of short papers (1,500-2,000 words) that present research related to the workshop theme. Examples of topics of particular interest include:
Workshop Format:
Organizers:
Website: http://geosocialanalysis.blogspot.com/p/about.html
CityMetric |
Two-thirds of all UK public transport journeys go by road. We need to talk about buses
CityMetric Finally, our map of the week – which, I’ll be honest, we do no justice to whatsoever – is this magnificent piece of work by Duncan Smith of UCL’s Centre for Advanced spatial Analysis. It shows, at a glance, the growth of all the world’s major cities … |
Readers might know that we like pedestrian models here. So in keeping with the theme of NetLogo models and the use of GIS below are two simple pedestrian models. In the first model (shown in the movie below), agents just exit the room, taking the short…
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Readers might know that we like pedestrian models here. So in keeping with the theme of NetLogo models and the use of GIS below are two simple pedestrian models. In the first model (shown in the movie below), agents just exit the room, taking the short…
Continue reading »Readers of the blog might be interested in a workshop being organized by Daniel Brown, Eun-Kyeong Kim, Liliana Perez, and Raja Sengupta entitled:
To quote from the call:
“A broad scope of concepts and methodologies from complexity science – including Agent-Based Models, Cellular Automata, network theory, chaos theory, and scaling relations – has contributed to a better understanding of spatial/temporal dynamics of complex geographic patterns and process.
Recent advances in computational technologies such as Big Data, Cloud Computing and CyberGIS platforms, and Sensor Networks (i.e. the Internet of Things) provides both new opportunities and raises new challenges for ABM and complexity theory research within GIScience. Challenges include parameterization of complex models with volumes of georeferenced data being generated, scale model applications to realistic simulations over broader geographic extents, explore the challenges in their deployment across large networks to take advantage of increased computational power, and validate their output using real-time data, as well as measure the impact of the simulation on knowledge, information and decision-making both locally and globally via the world wide web.
The scope of this workshop is to explore novel complexity science approaches to dynamic geographic phenomena and their applications, addressing challenges and enriching research methodologies in geography in a Big Data Era.”
More information about the workshop can be found at https://sites.psu.edu/bigcomplexitygisci/
Continue reading »Readers of the blog might be interested in a workshop being organized by Daniel Brown, Eun-Kyeong Kim, Liliana Perez, and Raja Sengupta entitled:
To quote from the call:
“A broad scope of concepts and methodologies from complexity science – including Agent-Based Models, Cellular Automata, network theory, chaos theory, and scaling relations – has contributed to a better understanding of spatial/temporal dynamics of complex geographic patterns and process.
Recent advances in computational technologies such as Big Data, Cloud Computing and CyberGIS platforms, and Sensor Networks (i.e. the Internet of Things) provides both new opportunities and raises new challenges for ABM and complexity theory research within GIScience. Challenges include parameterization of complex models with volumes of georeferenced data being generated, scale model applications to realistic simulations over broader geographic extents, explore the challenges in their deployment across large networks to take advantage of increased computational power, and validate their output using real-time data, as well as measure the impact of the simulation on knowledge, information and decision-making both locally and globally via the world wide web.
The scope of this workshop is to explore novel complexity science approaches to dynamic geographic phenomena and their applications, addressing challenges and enriching research methodologies in geography in a Big Data Era.”
More information about the workshop can be found at https://sites.psu.edu/bigcomplexitygisci/
Continue reading »CityMetric |
The future of the left: So why do most countries drive on the right?
CityMetric Finally, our map of the week – which, I’ll be honest, we do no justice to whatsoever – is this magnificent piece of work by Duncan Smith of UCL’s Centre for Advanced spatial Analysis. It shows, at a glance, the growth of all the world’s major cities … |
Caren Cooper published a blog on Scientific American website: “Scientists Should Talk to the Public, but Also Listen” which also includes a citation from me and mentioning the work of Mapping for Change. She writes: “Why is it when scientists talk to the public, they’re said to be communicating, but when the public talks to … Continue reading Caren Cooper: Scientists Should Talk to the Public, but Also Listen
The Typographical Map of London, created by artist Joao Fonte, shows central London as a collection of symbols and words, arranged in a topologically representative form to show the city’s structure in a novel way. We really like the way the artist has been careful in their choice, and number, of colours, these add significantly […]
Continue reading »Vonu Thakuriah, Nebiyou Tilahun and Moira Zellner organized a very successful conference in August 2014 in Chicago. CASA had two papers at the meeting and you can drill down and find them in the Proceedings which you get access to here. … Continue reading →
Continue reading »CityMetric |
Podcast: Globalised cities and their discontents
CityMetric Finally, our map of the week – which, I’ll be honest, we do no justice to whatsoever – is this magnificent piece of work by Duncan Smith of UCL’s Centre for Advanced spatial Analysis. It shows, at a glance, the growth of all the world’s major cities … |
CityMetric |
In Sydney, a white face can be a big help in a discriminatory housing market
CityMetric Finally, our map of the week – which, I’ll be honest, we do no justice to whatsoever – is this magnificent piece of work by Duncan Smith of UCL’s Centre for Advanced spatial Analysis. It shows, at a glance, the growth of all the world’s major cities … |
CityMetric |
How Ljubljana is making its name as Europe’s green capital
CityMetric How can a European city create its own unique identity in the 21st century? After all, there are so many places – London, Paris, Rome – which can distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack with an array of monuments and attractions. But what if … |
The EU Joint Research Centre in Ispra has recently released the recording of a talk by Alan Irwin at the Joint Research Centre as part of the STS “Contro Corrente” series of seminars from 15 October 2015, with Jerome Ravetz and Silvio Funtowicz (famous for their post-normal science) as discussants. The talk, titled Citizen Science and Scientific Citizenship: same words, … Continue reading Alan Irwin talk on Citizen Science and Scientific Citizenship (JRC, October 2015)
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Dear colleagues,
The Geospatial Research Institute at the University of Canterbury (NZ) is currently advertising a Professorship in Spatial Information.
Please find application details here, and more information about the post…
In the past I have blogged on how one can use Repast Simphony to get agents to move around a network, which also inspired a similar model in GeoMason (see here for the movie). Keeping with this theme Yang has recently finished a NetLogo model whe…
Continue reading »In the past I have blogged on how one can use Repast Simphony to get agents to move around a network, which also inspired a similar model in GeoMason (see here for the movie). Keeping with this theme Yang has recently finished a NetLogo model whe…
Continue reading »The winter edition of Esri ArcNews (which according to Mike Gould of Esri, is printed in as many copies as Forbes) includes an article on the activities of the Extreme Citizen Science group in supporting indigenous groups in mapping. The article highlights the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) aspects of the work, and mentioning many members of … Continue reading Extreme Citizen Science in Esri ArcNews
We’ve featured Crossrail’s official construction map before, when it was showing the progress of the various TBMs (tunnel boring machines) drilling through London, but with the tunnels themselves now burrowed, it’s received a welcome update – if you zoom right in, you can now see the shape and extent of the underground stations. And they […]
Continue reading »CityMetric |
Bored? Here are some century-old maps of Britain to play with
CityMetric Finally, our map of the week – which, I’ll be honest, we do no justice to whatsoever – is this magnificent piece of work by Duncan Smith of UCL’s Centre for Advanced spatial Analysis. It shows, at a glance, the growth of all the world’s major cities … |
Every project ends, eventually. The Citizen Cyberlab project was funded through the seventh framework programme of the European Union (or EU FP7 in short), and run from September 2012 to November 2015. Today marks the final review of the project in with all the project’s partners presenting the work that they’ve done during the project. The project had … Continue reading Citizen Cyberlab – notes from final review (26-27 January, Geneva)
Recently, Alison Heppenstall, Nick Malleson and myself have just had a paper accepted in Systems entitled: “Space, the Final Frontier”: How Good are Agent-Based Models at Simulating Individuals and Space in Cities?” In the paper we critically examine how well agent-based models have simulated a variety of urban processes. We discus what considerations are needed when choosing the appropriate level of spatial analysis and time frame to model urban phenomena and what role Big Data can play in agent-based modeling. Below you can read the abstract of the paper and see a number of example applications discussed.
Abstract: Cities are complex systems, comprising of many interacting parts. How we simulate and understand causality in urban systems is continually evolving. Over the last decade the agent-based modeling (ABM) paradigm has provided a new lens for understanding the effects of interactions of individuals and how through such interactions macro structures emerge, both in the social and physical environment of cities. However, such a paradigm has been hindered due to computational power and a lack of large fine scale datasets. Within the last few years we have witnessed a massive increase in computational processing power and storage, combined with the onset of Big Data. Today geographers find themselves in a data rich era. We now have access to a variety of data sources (e.g., social media, mobile phone data, etc.) that tells us how, and when, individuals are using urban spaces. These data raise several questions: can we effectively use them to understand and model cities as complex entities? How well have ABM approaches lent themselves to simulating the dynamics of urban processes? What has been, or will be, the influence of Big Data on increasing our ability to understand and simulate cities? What is the appropriate level of spatial analysis and time frame to model urban phenomena? Within this paper we discuss these questions using several examples of ABM applied to urban geography to begin a dialogue about the utility of ABM for urban modeling. The arguments that the paper raises are applicable across the wider research environment where researchers are considering using this approach.
Keywords: cities; agent-based modeling; big data; crime; retail; space; simulation
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| Figure 1. (A) System structure; (B) System hierarchy; and (C) Related subsystems/processes (adapted from Batty, 2013). |
Reference cited:
Batty, M. (2013). The New Science of Cities; MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, USA.
Full reference to the open access paper:
Heppenstall, A., Malleson, N. and Crooks A.T. (2016). “Space, the Final Frontier”: How Good are Agent-based Models at Simulating Individuals and Space in Cities?, Systems, 4(1), 9; doi: 10.3390/systems4010009 (pdf)
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