Four students have started PhDs with the Healthy and Sustainable Places Data Service
Davi Gressler De Oliveira – Improving measures of perceived access to local amenities
Improving access to local amenities by active travel is an important phase in enhancing the sustainability of urban mobility. By enhancing the presence of and connectivity to essential amenities it is possible to reduce the necessity of car-based travel, and enhance opportunities for active travel, which in turn have benefits to health.
This concept is the basis of considerable national government investment in active travel infrastructure, and a focus of many local government initiatives. Yet accessibility measures are still relatively crude.
This PhD project will expand existing approaches to better consider how neighbourhood amenities and distances are perceived by citizens.
“Understanding individuals’ cognitive perceptions of space and how that can be used in accessibility research and urban planning is really intriguing to me as a way to use big mobility data to improve people’s lives”
Yelu He – Generating synthetic mobility trajectories for privacy-preserving data sharing
The growth in the availability of fine-grained mobility data has spurred high-impact research findings into the nature of human mobility. There remains significant potential for enhanced understanding of mobility behaviour to help improve the reliability and sustainability of urban transportation systems.
Despite major safeguards in place around the storage and use of fine-grained mobility data, there remain concerns about the risk to individual privacy, and questions about the continued willingness of the public to permit data for use in research.
This PhD project will seek to advance the state-of-the-art in synthetic trajectory production through the development of methods that better capture spatial, temporal, and contextual heterogeneity.
“I am looking forward to exploring the field of synthetic trajectory data generation, as well as deepening my understanding of mobility issues and how data can contribute to improving the health and sustainability of places.”
Bhagya Sri Chintakula – Identifying priority places for increasing physical activity in the UK
Globally, a third of all adults do not meet physical activity recommendations. At the same time, we need to reduce emissions from motorised transport, which is a key contributor to the climate crisis.
Shifting behaviour towards increased physical activity, including active travel, presents an opportunity for intervention and innovation that would reduce emissions, and promote health.
This PhD project explores developing a composite measure to highlight places across the UK most in need of support to access physical activity spaces, from a combined health and wellbeing and environmental sustainability perspective.
“The opportunity to work on the HASP deeply motivates me and aligns perfectly with my research interests. This project offers an ideal platform where I can apply both my urban data analysis and planning skills to make a meaningful impact.”
Frank Chen – Understanding the relationship between food behaviours and health outcomes
Food production and consumption are at the heart of the worlds greatest challenges, with 1 in 5 deaths globally attributed to poor diet and a third of global greenhouse gas emissions coming from food production.
This PhD project, in partnership with Nesta, will use smart data from food providers, combined with health outcomes within the NHS secure data environment, to unlock insights into behaviour and health outcomes for places across the UK most in need of support and interventions to improve access to healthy, sustainable and nutritious food.
“I am looking forward to uncovering new insights into how local food environments influence health, and to developing methods that help policymakers design more equitable interventions.”
