Research project
TALISMAN: Geospatial Data Analysis and Simulation
- Start date: 1 October 2011
- End date: 30 September 2014
- Primary investigator: Professor Mark Birkin
- Co-investigators: Prof John Stillwell
- External co-investigators: Alan Wilson (UCL), Andrew Hudson-Smith (CASA), Michael Batty (UCL)
The TALISMAN project aims to promote a widespread appreciation of the importance of geography and spatial relationships across the social sciences, amongst both academics and informed stakeholders. Familiar examples include variations in life expectancy, patterns of illness and access to hospitals (health care), voting patterns within and between parliamentary constituencies (political science), burglary rates in urban neighbourhoods (criminology), and local fluctuations in the price of commodities such as petrol (economics).
The project will provide training to social scientists in the analysis methods which are most appropriate to address issues of spatial analysis and process. Core methods range from the manipulation and visualisation of data through Geographical Information Systems to the application of sophisticated mathematical models representing the behaviour of both individuals and groups.
The research will develop and extend state of the art geospatial methods with new techniques of data analysis and new simulation models. Key data sources will include volunteered geographical information, new methods of mining historical data, and new analyses of cross-sectional Census data. Novel techniques to visualise model inputs, outputs and processes will be developed and exploited so that scientists and informed stakeholders alike are able to generate more effective solutions to important social science problems.
Grant Reference: RES-576-25-0039