Urban Big Data Centre

城市大数据中心旨在促进创新研究方法和使用大数据，以改善城市的社会、经济和环境福祉。传统上，定量的城市分析依赖于为研究目的而设计的数据：特别是人口普查和社会调查。他们的素质和从他们那里提取知识所需的技能被社会研究人员广泛分享。例如，随着数字时代的到来，我们在日常生活中从物理传感器、商业和公共管理系统或社交媒体平台产生了越来越多的数据。这些数据有可能为城市生活提供有价值的见解，但从这些数据中提取有用的知识还有更多的挑战。有些是技术性的，源于数据的数量和种类，以及其不那么结构化的性质。有些是法律和道德方面的，涉及数据所有权和个人隐私权。最重要的是，在使用大数据方面存在重要的社会科学问题。我们需要用对城市问题和背景的知情观点来塑造我们对这些数据提出的问题，而不是让数据驱动研究。有必要就数据本身以及它们如何影响由此产生的城市生活表现形式提出问题。而且有必要研究这些数据是如何被政策制定者利用并用于决策的。UBDC是一个研究中心，它汇集了一支杰出的多学科团队来应对这些复杂而多样的挑战。我们是四个能力的独特组合：社会科学家具有与城市研究相关的一系列学科背景的专业知识；数据科学家在编程、数据管理、信息检索和空间信息系统以及有关大数据使用的法律问题方面具有专业知识；数据基础设施包括大量数据收集和安全的数据管理和分析系统；以及在第一阶段和更广泛的工作过程中发展起来的与政策、行业和民间社会组织有密切联系的学术小组。在第二阶段，我们的目标是从第一阶段起使活动的社会和经济效益最大化。我们将特别通过与工业界和政府利益攸关方建立伙伴关系来实现这一点，共同努力产生符合他们需求的分析结果，并使其得到更广泛的应用。我们将继续在一系列学科领域发表世界领先的科学论文。我们将努力加强数据收集，开发新的分析方法。我们将进行研究，以了解这些新数据的质量，它们在多大程度上代表或歪曲了生活的特定方面，以及政策制定者如何以及可以在实践中使用它们。最后，我们将建设研究人员和其他人在未来使用这类数据的能力。我们的工作方案包括四个专题工作包。一个重点是了解城市交通系统的可持续性、公平性和效率，并评估基础设施投资对这些方面的影响。特别注重公共交通的可达性以及积极的旅行，从而产生健康结果。第二部分考察了城市住宅结构或空间隔离模式的变化，及其对社会公平的影响，特别关注私人租房的重新增长。第三部分研究了城市系统如何塑造技能发展和生产力，尤其是家庭和学校环境的结合如何塑造中学教育成就。第四章探讨了大数据是如何被政策制定者采用的。它询问更有效地利用这些数据的障碍是什么，但它们是否扭曲了公共机构可能形成的需求图景。

The Urban Big Data Centre aims to promote innovative research methods and the use of big data to improve social, economic and environmental well-being in cities. Traditionally, quantitative urban analysis relied on data designed for research purposes: Census and social surveys, in particular. Their qualities are well understood and the skills needed for extracting knowledge from them widely shared by social researchers. With the arrival of the digital age, we produce an ever increasing volume of data as we go about our daily lives from physical sensors, business and public administrative systems, or social media platforms, for example. These data have the potential to provide valuable insights into urban life but there are many more challenges in extracting useful knowledge from them. Some are technical, arising from the volume and variety of data, and its less structured nature. Some are legal and ethical, concerning data ownership rights and individual privacy rights. Above all, there are important social science issues in the use of big data. We need to shape the questions we ask of these data with an informed perspective on urban problems and contexts, and not have data drive the research. There is a need to ask questions about the data themselves and how they affect the resulting representations of urban life. And there is a need to examine the ways in which these data are taken up by policy makers and used in decision making. UBDC is a research centre which brings together an outstanding multi-disciplinary team to address these complex and varied challenges. We are a unique combination of four capacities: social scientists with expertise from a range of disciplinary backgrounds relevant to urban studies; data scientists with expertise in programming, data management, information retrieval and spatial information systems, as well as in legal issues around big data use; a data infrastructure comprising a substantial data collection and secure data management and analysis systems; and an academic group with strong connections to policy, industry and civil society organisations developed over the course of phase one and wider work. In the second phase, our objectives are to maximise the social and economic benefits of activities from phase one. We will do this in particular through partnerships with industrial and government stakeholders, working together to produce analyses which meet their needs as well as having wider application. We will continue to publish world-leading scientific papers across a range of disciplines. We will work to enhance data collections and develop new methods of analysis. We will conduct research to understand the quality of these new data, how well they represent or misrepresent particular aspects of life, and how they are and could be used by policy makers in practice. Lastly, we will build capacity for researchers and others to work with this kind of data in future. Our work programme comprises four thematic work packages. One focuses on understanding the sustainability, equity and efficiency of urban transport systems and on evaluating the impacts on these of infrastructure investments. There is a particular focus on public transport accessibility as well as active travel and hence health outcomes. The second examines the changing residential structure of cities or patterns of spatial segregation, and their consequences for social equity, with a particular focus on the re-growth of private renting. The third studies how urban systems shape skills development and productivity and, in particular, how the combination of home and school environments combine to shape secondary educational attainment. The fourth explores how big data are being taken up by policy makers. It asks what the barriers are to more effective use of these data but also whether they distort the picture of needs which a public body may form.