The Urban Big Data Centre aims to develop an integrated urban data infrastructure and innovative research methods to address social, behavioral, and environmental challenges in cities. It focuses on various themes such as social exclusion and dynamic resource management, while promoting open data and collaboration among researchers, public and private sectors, and citizens. The Centre supports research across multiple urban sectors, leveraging diverse data sources including administrative records, surveys, and user-generated content.

1. Urban Big Data Centre
ESRC Big Data Network
Piyushimita Thakuriah (Vonu)
UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Director, UK ESRC Urban Big Data Centre
Halcrow Chair of Transport
Professor, Urban Studies
July 24, 2014

2. July 24, 2014
 Interdisciplinary research centre to develop linked urban data
infrastructure & novel research methods for sustainable and socially-just
cities
 Support research, practice and outreach on social, behavioural and
environmental challenges facing cities with focus on:
 Strategic Themes - social exclusion; dynamic resource management;
lifelong learning; migration; activity patterns; civic and urban
engagement; attitudes, lifestyle and beliefs
 Multiple Urban Sectors: transport, housing, education, economic
development, environment
 Support effective and responsible use of heterogeneous urban data by
academics, public and private sector analysts, citizen-scientists and “civic
hackers” with a focus on “open” – Open Data, open source technologies
and software
Urban Big Data Centre

3. July 24, 2014
Data Products
Data Services
Research
Outreach & KE Training
Overall UBDC Portfolio
ESRC Big Data Investment on Cities programme
ESRC Strategic Priorities Economic Performance for Sustainable Growth ∎
Influencing Behaviour & Informing Interventions ∎ Fair & Vibrant Society
Disciplines
 Urban planning &
policy
 Statistics
 Economics
 Computer science
 Education
 Geography
 Civil engineering

4. July 24, 2014
 Administrative data eg, crime, transport,
property taxes, energy, public health,
housing etc - Open Government initiatives
leading to large longitudinal or repeated
cross-sections of such data
 Privately-held transactions or other data
or confidential government data records
which are often not readily accessible
 Surveys and censuses
 “Synthetic” outputs from urban and
regional planning models & simulations
 Infrastructure-based sensors and
Machine-to-Machine (M2M)
communications
 User-Generated Content (UGC)
Data Products
Infrastructure-based
sensors and User-
Generated Content
“Synthetic” Modeled
Content
Administrative, survey and other
privately held or “open” data
Urban Linked
Big Data
Infrastructure

5. July 24, 2014
Research Projects
Methods
Research
Urban
Research
Capstone Urban Indicators
Project

6. July 24, 2014
Methods Research
 Urban social science methods: urban modelling,
statistics, data science, agent-based modelling
 Big Data information management, information
extraction, retrieval
 Urban indicators research

7. July 24, 2014
Urban Research
 Urban Informatics for Shared and Intermodal Transport
Planning and Operations: Social, Behavioural and Low-
Carbon Considerations
 An Integrated Multi-sectoral Model of Employment and
Migration
 Educational Disadvantage and Place
 Social Justice and Cohesion in a Privatised Rental
Housing System
 Linking Complexity to Big Data: Integrated Agent-Based
Modelling and Impact Evaluation of Social Exclusion -
Glasgow-Chicago Comparisons

8. July 24, 2014
Extensive Local, UK-wide and International
Networks
 Workshop on Big Data and Urban Informatics funded by US
National Science Foundation to be held in Chicago, USA, Aug 11-
12, 2014
 Selected full papers will appear in Springer book: Seeing Cities
through Big Data – Theory, Methods and Applications in Urban
Informatics
 Consortium of International Universities
 Public sector organisations
 Private sector
 Non-profits, informal advocacy and civic hacking networks