Skip to main content

Official SDSC site

Research

Advancing spatial knowledge and practice

The Spatial Data Science Center (SDSC) is committed to developing solutions to some of society's most pressing problems in areas such as health, transportation, crime, poverty and the environment through the power of spatial data analytics.

Focus Areas

Spatial Analytics

Advance spatial statistical and AI methods to better understand spatial processes and enable accurate prediction.

Selected Publications

  1. 2024CRC Press (Routledge): Boca Raton, FL.

    Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression: Theory and Practice

    Fotheringham, A. S., Oshan, T. M., & Li, Z.

  2. 2026Spatial Statistics

    Uncovering Local Spatial Context via Multiscale Geographically Weighted Binomial Regression

    Kao, C.-L., Sachdeva, M., & Fotheringham, A. S.

  3. 2026Annals of the American Association of Geographers

    Spatial Context as a Time-Invariant Confounder: A Fixed-Effects Extension of MGWR

    Li, Z., & Fotheringham, A. S.

  4. 2024Annals of the American Association of Geographers

    GeoShapley: A Game Theory Approach to Measuring Spatial Effects in Machine Learning Models

    Li, Z.

Health & Wellbeing

Analyze geographic patterns in health outcomes, risks, and healthcare access for better decision-making and prediction.

Selected Publications

  1. 2025BMC Public Health

    Mobility, ICT, and health: a built environment investigation of older Chinese migrants' social isolation and loneliness

    DeJohn, A., Liu, B., Ma, X., Widener, M. J., & Liu, Z.

  2. 2025Applied Geography

    Introducing rational agent access model to enhance scene-to-hospital accessibility of emergency medical services

    Kim, K., Kwon, K., & Horner, M. W.

  3. 2025Population, Space and Place

    Evaluating small area differential privacy life expectancy

    Melix, B. L., & Uejio, C. K.

Environment

Monitor, model, and predict environmental changes and natural hazards, and assess their impacts on ecosystems and communities.

Selected Publications

  1. 2026Discover Public Health

    Extreme heat adaptation and relocation intentions among older in-migrants in US coastal communities

    DeJohn, A. D., Horner, M. W., & Fattah, M. A.

  2. 2024Science of The Total Environment

    Impact of the 2022 New Mexico, US wildfires on air quality and health

    Maji, K. J., Ford, B., Li, Z., Hu, Y., Hu, L., Langer, C. E., Hawkinson, C., Paladugu, S., Moraga-McHaley, S., Woods, B., Vansickle, M., Uejio, C. K., Maichak, C., Sablan, O., Magzamen, S., Pierce, J. R., & Russell, A. G.

  3. 2024International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

    Resource exchange patterns between Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs): A multilevel network assessment to improve disaster response capacity

    Mathews, M. C., Vickery, J., & Peek, L.

Urban

Explore how urban systems, mobility and spatial dynamics influence equity and resilience in cities.

Selected Publications

  1. 2026Applied Geography

    Causal effects of transit investment on neighborhoods: Evidence from unbuilt alternative alignments

    DeJohn, A., Palm, M., & Suandi, M.

  2. 2025Habitat International

    Where England's cities are growing: Evidence from big building footprint data and explainable AI

    Yuan, X., Li, Z., Basiri, A., & Wang, M.

  3. 2025The Annals of Regional Science

    Single-family home spaciousness and COVID-19

    Ihlanfeldt, K., & Yang, C. F.

Transportation

Understand travel behavior, enhance mobility systems, and advance equitable and sustainable transportation solutions.

Selected Publications

  1. 2026Computational Urban Science

    Exploring the determinants of bike-sharing member trips with explainable machine learning: insights from Chicago’s Divvy system

    Lu, J., Li, Z., & Guo, Q.

  2. 2026Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies

    Multiscale geographically and temporally weighted regression (MGTWR): exploring the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of EV market adoption

    Luo, X., Fotheringham, A. S., Yu, H., & Zhou, X. S.

  3. 2025Annals of the American Association of Geographers

    Integrating People in Place-Based Accessibility Measures: Design and Application of a Mode Choice Accessibility Model

    Kim, K., & Horner, M. W.

Crime

Examine crime dynamics, neighborhood contexts, and social inequities shaping public safety.

Selected Publications

  1. 2025Journal of Quantitative Criminology

    Making Spatial More Spatial: Decomposing Direct, Indirect, and Total Impacts in Neighborhood and Crime Studies

    Kim, Y.-A., & Jeong, J.

  2. 2025Journal of Criminal Justice

    Exploring crime through physical and social neighborhood factors: Greenspace and social disconnection in Los Angeles

    Wo, J. C., Kim, Y.-A., & Berg, M. T.

  3. 2025Spatial Economic Analysis

    On the political and socioeconomic geography of violence: Spatial heterogeneity and scale effects in Brazil

    Mendez, C., & Sachdeva, M.