Developing Smart Statistics for Urban Mobility:

Challenges and Opportunities KonstantinosAmpountolas(SeniorLecturer;Co-IUBDC)AndrewMcHugh(SeniorDataScienceManagerUBDC)

VonuThakuriah(FoundingDirectorUBDC)

UrbanBigDataCentre,UniversityofGlasgow,UK

The Urban Big Data Centre

•  UKGovernment(EconomicandSocialResearchCouncil)funded•  Operatingaresearch-leddataservice

•  Datainfrastructureandcollections•  Priorityresearchstrands:transport&mobility;neighbourhood,housing&environment;education,skills&productivity;bigdata&urbangovernance

•  Combiningsocialscienceresearchwithdataanalyticsandcomputingscience

•  Overallaims:•  Achievepublicpolicyimpact•  Criticallyevaluateroleandvalueofbigdataandurbananalytics•  Enhancedataandmethods

“Promotinginnovativeresearchmethodsandtheuseofbigdatatoimprovesocial,economicandenvironmentalwell-beingincities”

The Urban Big Data Centre (http://ubdc.ac.uk) Dataservice/catalog:http://ubdc.gla.ac.uk

Context Techno

logical §  Informationgenerationandcapture

§  Datamanagement§  Dataprocessing§  Archiving,curationandstorage§  Disseminationanddiscovery§  Algorithms/AI/MachineLearning Th

eoreticaland

ep

istemological §  Understandingmetrics,definitions,andchanging

ideologiesandmethodstosolvingdomainproblems§  Determiningvalidityofapproachesandlimitsto

knowledgefromdata-drivenapproach§  Informationparadoxes(Jevonsparadox),

userequilibriumvssystemequilibrium

Metho

dological Datapreparation

§  Informationretrievalandextraction§  Datalinkage/informationintegration§  Datacleaning,anonymization&quality

Dataanalysis§  Methodstoanalysedomainchallenges§  Uncertainty,biasesanderrorpropagation

Politicalecono

my §  Dataentrepreneurship,innovationnetworks

andpowerstructures§  Valuepropositionsandeconomicimplications§  Dataacquisitionsstrategies,accessand

governanceframework§  Privacy,securityandtrustmanagement§  Responsibleinnovationandemergentethics

Urban data context – data sources UrbanBigData ExamplesSensorsystems Environmental,water,transportation,buildingmanagementsensor

systems;connectedsystems;InternetofThingsUser-GeneratedContent

Participatorysensingsystems,citizenscienceprojects,socialmedia,webuse,GPS,onlinesocialnetworksandothersocially-generateddata

Administrative(governmental)Data

Openadministrativedataontransactions,taxesandrevenue,paymentsandregistrations;confidentialperson-levelmicrodata

PrivateSectorData Customertransactionsdatafromstorecardsandbusinessrecords;fleetmanagementsystems;usagedatafromutilitiesandfinancialinstitutions;productpurchasesandtermsofserviceagreements

ArtsandHumanitiesData

Repositoriesoftext,images,soundrecordings,linguisticdata,film,artandmaterialculture,anddigitalobjects,andothermedia

HybridDataSourcesandSyntheticData

Linkeddataincludingsurvey-sensor,census-administrativerecords

Thakuriah,P.,N.TilahunandM.Zellner(2017).BigDataandUrbanInformatics:InnovationsandChallengestoUrbanPlanningandKnowledgeDiscovery.InSeeingCitiesThroughBigData:Research,MethodsandApplicationsinUrbanInformatics,Springer,NY,pp.11-48.

Urban data context – research & methods

Richstrandsofurbananalyticswithinurbanmobilitytheme•  Urbanmetabolism–realtimeanalyticsusingsocialmediaandGPSdatatoidentifyspatio-temporalactivityclusters(functionalusage/stayduration…)andsemanticallyannotatedtoconnectlandusePoIandtransportnetworks•  Geolocalisationofsocialmediadata–identifyunder-reportedphenomenasuchasroadtrafficincidents,andexplorerelationshipbetweencrashesandcrime• Wearablesensorscombinedtoshowmobilitypatternsandbehaviours(indoorwalking;socialexclusion;travelmodality)•  Transportpoverty–relationshipswithlabourmarketsandchangingnatureofwork-smallareatransitavailabilityindicators•  Activetravel–usingdatasetssuchasStravaMetro,validatingandinforminginfrastructuralinvestments

Urban data context – research & methods

Richstrandsofurbananalyticswithinurbanmobilitytheme•  Urbanmetabolism–realtimeanalyticsusingsocialmediaandGPSdatatoidentifyspatio-temporalactivityclusters(functionalusage/stayduration…)andsemanticallyannotatedtoconnectlandusePoIandtransportnetworks•  Geolocalisationofsocialmediadata–identifyunder-reportedphenomenasuchasroadtrafficincidents,andexplorerelationshipbetweencrashesandcrime• Wearablesensorscombinedtoshowmobilitypatternsandbehaviours(indoorwalking;socialexclusion;travelmodality)•  Transportpoverty–relationshipswithlabourmarketsandchangingnatureofwork-smallareatransitavailabilityindicators•  Activetravel–usingdatasetssuchasStravaMetro,validatingandinforminginfrastructuralinvestments

Key challenges

Skills Technology Datasharing Trust

Skills, knowledge and team composition

Multipleacademicfields• Urbanstudies•  Transportandspatialplanning•  Engineering• ComputingScience

Subjectspecialisms•  Spatialandstatisticalanalytics• ComputingScience:•  Information/datamanagement•  Informationretrieval•  Humancomputerinteraction

•  Economics,lawandinformationscience

Skills, knowledge and team composition Teamcomposition• Domainprofessionals•  Informationscientists•  Statisticalanalysts•  Legalandethics• Consumerneedsspecialists• Communications&outreach• Businessmodellers

Successfulteamslearnfromeachother,listentoneeds,areopentonewideas,andareconstantlyseekingtocollaborate.

Skills•  Scienceofsensors,includingremotesensingsystems• AI/machinelearning• DBmanagement/administration• Datavisualisation• GISspatialanalysis•  Informationgovernance

Technology and structure •  Significantlevelsofcapacity-building•  Partnershipswithacademics,industryandlocalgovernments•  Fit-for-purposetechnologicalandmethodologicalapproaches•  Datastandardsforharmonisationacrosscountries•  Methodological/algorithmicstandardisation•  Havingnationalchampionsandalsolocalchampionstohighlighttheimportanceofsmartstatisticsanddemonstratevaluetokeydecision-makersandthepublic–peerreviewrole?

•  Peer-to-peernetworkstoestablishcollaborationandcommunity-basedlearning•  Havingapproachestoqueryandminethedatainanexploratorysensetounderstandemergingtrends

•  Meaningfulandimpactfulderiveddataandanalysis,andproactivelydemonstratingpublicgood

•  Publicengagementandinformingpublicofbenefitsandrisksofdata(especiallynecessarywhenothersarenowprovidingcriticaldata)

Data sharing

• Partnershiptrumpsavendor/customerrelationship•  Licensinganddatasharingagreementsmustreflectcurrentandanticipatedfutureuse• Dataqualityassessmentmustconsidertherelationship

•  Continuityofsupply–conformitytoagreedspecification?•  Organisationalstability•  Methodologicaltransparency/stability

• Whatreassurancesfordataownersareinplace?•  Privacybydesign•  Informationsecuritycontrols•  Processfordatasharing

Trust and validation •  Expertevaluation/recognisedaccreditedauthority/reviewandoversightoftrustacrossdifferentsectors•  Seekgroundtruthdata–easiersaidthendonebutimportanttohaveasaspirationalgoal•  Softsystemsapproachesfromamethodologicalperspectivetoderiveweightsonresultsfromdifferentmethodsordifferentanalysts•  Novelmethodologicalapproachestoassessandcaptureuncertaintyateachstageofdatatooutputlifecycle•  Conductextensivesensitivityanalysisandsimulationstounderstandbehaviourofstatisticsandindicatorsfrom“blackbox”algorithmsateverystageoftheparametertuningorcriticaljunctures–validations/evaluationsshouldoccuratthesestagesnotjustwiththefinalproduct•  Closingtheloop!Closed-loopfeedbackstatistics

Thankyou!