Projects
Research Projects
Current Research Projects
Urban Remote Sensing
Remotely sensed images and the corresponding analytical techniques offer a comprehensive approach to observing and monitoring urban environments in real-time through high spatial-temporal-spectral-resolution data.
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Sensor-enhanced Housing Surveys
This project seeks to develop a framework for using and collecting data from a range of home-based sensors to understand human health and fuel poverty.
European Space Agency funds SatVu and UBDC Heat Loss Index
The European Space Agency funding a feasibility study, led by SatVu with UBDC, to enhance the analysis of building energy efficiency.
Building housing energy efficiency models from local sensing
Decarbonising domestic heating is a central challenge for the sustainability agenda - requiring fundamental changes in home heating systems and major upgrades in the thermal performance of the existing building stock to reduce energy consumption.
Changing travel behaviour
Understanding current travel behaviour is only part of a transport planner’s job as achieving targets relating to decarbonisation, air quality and physical activity will inevitably require substantial changes in how we travel.
Methodological challenges of digital footprint data for mobility analysis
Digital footprint data offers a variety of new and exciting opportunities for transport planners. However, with these new opportunities come new challenges. This work packages uses a variety of different forms of digital footprint data and works to understand where the data can make a valuable contribution.
Accessing people, places and activities
The climate emergency has given fresh impetus for cities to rethink their transport systems. In many cases, the excessive use of private cars is a challenge which must be addressed.
Active travel: Data and Behaviour
The benefits of active travel for improving public health and environmental sustainability have been well established, and many countries are making substantial investments to encourage active modes.
Valuing energy efficiency and clean heating
There isno pathway to Net Zero without the near-complete decarbonisation of heat inhousing. In this project, we seek to provide high quality evidence on progressin relation to this goal to support public policy and wider debate.
Monitoring and analysing Short-term let activities
The rise of the short-term lets market, sparked by the emergence of Airbnb, has supported the growth of tourism in many cities as well as other areas.
Understanding use of urban greenspaces through big data
The overall aim of this project is to incorporate mobile phone data to better understand human interactions with urban greenspaces and how this dynamic has changed for different sectors of the population throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
DataCivil
DataCivil: institutionalising citizen-generated data for risk reduction in Favelas A project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Impact Acceleration Account (ESRC IAA).
URBE Latam
URBE Latam seeks to expand and refine the understanding of risks, vulnerabilities and potentialities associated with rain-related geohazards in Latin America by rethinking how environmental risk data is produced, how it is used, and how it might enable transformations that close the implementation gap for marginalised communities.
Waterproofing Data
The Waterproofing Data project investigates the governance of water-related risks, with a focus on social and cultural aspects of data practices. The project was conducted by a highly skilled international team of researchers with multiple disciplinary backgrounds from Brazil, Germany and the UK.
CityCashTransfer
Evaluation of Urban Sustainability in Municipal Cash Transfer Programs using Digital Local Currency - a University of Glasgow Centre for International Development (GCID) Small Grant-funded project
IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem
The IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem project is focused on co-designing and developing a participatory data-modelling ecosystem to produce deprived area maps routinely and accurately at scale across cities in lower middle-income countries (LMIC) to support multiple local stakeholders in their decision-making.
The UBDC Local Sustainability Data Blog
Based on ongoing research at UBDC, this blog series on ‘Sustainability Data’ presents research results, debates and emerging insights which, we hope, stimulate further discussion and add value to researchers, policy makers, city managers, and government officials in general, who deal with these questions on a daily level.
Currently, there are no active projects.
Past Research Projects
Urban labour markets post-pandemic
What are the long-term consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on the labour market and the nature of work in urban areas.
Workforce challenges in Adult Social Care
Researchers shed light on workforce challenges in adult social care, using an expansive dataset of online job adverts held by UBDC.
Adzuna derivative products to help you unlock job trends
Vacancy data provides a valuable lens into how the world of work is evolving in modern economies.
Re-growth of private renting
The re-growth of private renting is the most significant change to the UK housing system in the last 20 years. This project examines the potential for big data to provide a better understanding of how the sector is changing its consequences.
Place-based Inequalities and Secondary School Attainment & Progression
This project aims to consider the extent to which there are systematic relationships between young people’s educational attainment, and family, school and neighbourhood characteristics. Using comprehensive data for the West of Scotland we address several key questions in this area.
Further Education: Fulfilling Its Purpose?
Further Education is supposed to provide a ladder of progression from school and to Higher Education, but research has called this into question.This project will consider the extent to which FE has produced improvements in educational and employment opportunities.
Inclusion in Higher Education
Despite the Scottish Government's sustained attempts to widen participation in Higher Education, outcomes with respect to reducing inequalities in access, attainment and entry into more skilled employment have been disappointing.
Gendered Journeys
Women and girls are markedly under-represented in STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines - both as students and in the workforce - in most countries across the globe.
Scottish local government during COVID-19
The Urban Big Data Centre carried out an in-depth analysis of data engagements by Scottish local authorities between autumn 2020 and spring 2021 as gathering information, collecting evidence, and generating intelligence was central to how local authorities responded to the COVID-19 crisis.
Administrative “big” data and unequal access to public services
This project brings research on unequal access to public services into the digital age.It examines how citizens interact with local service providers and how accurately these interactions represent local needs.
Smart city standards in local practice
An evaluation of the implementation of smart city standards in a variety of UK municipal contexts. This project seeks to analyse what contribution smart city standards make to urban planning and development.
Facility location modeling in future cities
Siting key facilities, such as hospitals and fire stations, in the right locations is vital for providing the services we need. In this project, we develop and apply spatially-explicit location models to assist with decision-making concerning site selections.
Governing the future city
UK cities have embraced digital governance under the banner of ‘smart city’ and local authorities are seeking new ways to mobilise big data to facilitate and improve infrastructure planning, public service delivery and political decision-making.
Currently, there are no active projects.
Meet our team and join the UBDC Community
At UBDC, you’ll join an international community of researchers, data scientists, social scientists and innovators using data and AI to understand and improve urban life. Our team brings together diverse expertise and perspectives to tackle the complex challenges facing cities worldwide.
Visit our people pages to meet the researchers, technical specialists and partners who make UBDC a leading centre for urban analytics and AI. Be part of our vibrant community by following our updates, sharing insights and engaging in conversations about data innovations and AI in urban policy.
Vanessa Galeano Duque
Researcher
Xingyi Du
PhD Student Researcher
Yuchen Xie
PhD student researcher
Jiazhi Zhu
PhD student researcher
Haoyu Tian
PhD student researcher
Sebastian Hafner
Research Associate
Mingyu Zhu
Research Assistant
Luning Li
Research Associate in Urban Analytics
Oluwatimilehin Shonowo
PhD Student researcher
Yuxiao Li
PhD student researcher
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Jointly funded by
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