Human Centred Geographical Interfaces for Evidence-Based Policy
A 3-year full-time PhD research studentship has been awarded to the School of Informatics, City University, London.
The studentship is funded by the EPSRC and Leicestershire County Council through a prestigious Industrial CASE award. It will draw upon academic research in visualization to design, develop and evaluate visualization tools in the context of policymaking in local government (see 'Research Details').
The money will fund a PhD candidate, to join the giCentre at City University from October 2005. They will spend 3 months on placement with the Research and Information Team at Leicestershire County Council.
The PhD research will be supervised by Dr. Jason Dykes in the Department of Information Science at City University and Robert Radburn of Leicestershire County Council.
Research Details
The Research Information Team provides data upon which policy decisions are made by Leicestershire County Council (LCC). Communication with experts in geovisualization and human-computer interaction design at City University has identified an opportunity for using advances in visualization to explore the richness of complex data sets, reveal patterns and so develop an effective evidence base with which to inform policy makers. Geovisualization techniques are of potential benefit to the County Council and both organizations are keen to participate in research that develops and evaluates tools that employ these techniques using human-centred approaches :
- the Council to employ and extend techniques for using data more effectively as the evidence base upon which policy is developed
- the University to design, implement and test visualization systems 'in the wild' with real users, real requirements and real potential benefits.
Consequently this funded research aims ...
- to advance research into the use of innovative human-centred techniques for designing and evaluating software for the visualization of multivariate geographic information
- to apply this research to specific information needs in the context of a requirement for evidence-based policymaking in Leicestershire County Council
Additional Information
Research and Information Team at Leicestershire County Council :
Leicestershire County Council (LCC) serves more than 600,000 people in Leicestershire with education, transportation, social and other services. The Research Information Team analyses, interprets and disseminates data and information for use in policy-making and to support the County Council and its partners in decision making. The team develops a number of information products and is involved in primary research to meet the information needs of the County Council and partners including Leicestershire Together, Leicester Shire Economic Partnership and the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships. Examples include: the development and dissemination of community and census profiles; crime and disorder research and the production of statutory crime audits; the provision of economic information; a web portal through which partners are able to access high quality information. Leicestershire County Council was recently regarded as 'excellent' in a report by the Audit Commission.
Robert Radburn is Senior Research Officer within the Research Information Team at LCC and responsible for promoting use of 2001 census, adding value to the data and developing innovative ways to use the information to the benefit of the local authority, its partners and the residents of Leicestershire. He is author if the 2001 Census Atlas of Leicestershire.
The Department of Information Science, City University :
The Department of Information Science (DIS) resides within the School of Informatics at City University. It is a leading centre of research in digital information use with 12 academic staff and 20 research staff and postgraduate students. Rated 5A in the RAE it has secured over £1 million of research funding from the Research Councils, NHS, the EU, charities and commerce since 2000. The giCentre is a vibrant research centre within DIS involved in developing innovative methodologies in the management, analysis and visualization of geographic information and monitoring and evaluating the use of GI in decision-making and policy development. The giCentre is working with the Ordnance Survey and RNIB to extend the delivery of LBS information to those with mobility problems through the ESRC/EPSRC PACCIT LINK award. The recent LOCUS project, funded by the EPSRC and awarded by the Pinpoint Faraday Partnership is investigating the use of novel interface paradigms for navigation with mobile devices for adaptive and personalised route planning. PhD students at the giCentre are currently working on using usability in geovisualization, collaborative geovisualization, modelling communities in giScience, ethnophysiography, virtual / augmented reality environments, gi policy frameworks and the exploratory analysis of time / space behaviour.
Dr. Jason Dykes has published widely on geovisualization and developed the cdv and panoraMap software as well as a prototype visualization application used a pilot study with LCC. A member of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Visualization and Virtual Environments Jason is lead editor of "Exploring Geovisualization", recently published by Elsevier.