BEGIN seminar – Dr Qunshan Zhao
Date: Tuesday, 1st April 2025 at 14:00 (UK Time)
Time: Online
Understanding cities by urban sensing and analytics
Slides
Abstract:
In recent years, various sensing technologies such as mobile phones, street scanning, stationary/portable sensors, and remote sensing have been used to understand our cities in an extreme high spatio-temporal resolution. The urban sensing technologies not only provide the new forms of data/digital footprints data in our cities, but present challenges such as effectively analysing underlying patterns and preventing the privacy disclosure. In this talk, I will introduce some of the recent research development in the UBDC Urban Sensing and Analytics research theme. It will include our recent work in building energy efficiency prediction, sensor-enhanced housing survey, traffic flow analysis for Glasgow, and 3D city modelling analysis.
Bio:
Dr Qunshan Zhao is a Professor in Urban Analytics in Urban Studies and Social Policy and an Associate Director (Urban Sensing & Analytics) of the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow, UK. Qunshan’s research has three main keywords, including Cities, Sensors, and Data. His research interest focuses on creating a sustainable urban future and tackling related social, economic, and environmental problems by using new forms of data and related analytical approaches. Ongoing research efforts include urban infrastructure location optimization (urban green infrastructure; bike sharing station; alternative refuelling stations location modelling), human-environment interactions (human mobility patterns in urban/natural spaces, particularly by mobile phone app data), housing energy efficiency and fuel poverty (fuel poverty and housing environment sensing and evaluation), 3D city modelling, urban slum modeling in Global South, and open source spatial optimization methods development (pysal/spopt).
