PROJECTS

Spatial Analysis of Opioid Risk Environments

US opioid overdose deaths have been increasing for a couple of years. This project aims to examine the spatial mismatch between vulnerability and medication access, mitigating inequities among communities. Details are here (Healthy Regions & Policies Lab).

Working with Dr. Marynia Kolak, Dr. Qinyun Lin, and other lab mates.

Space-Time Analytics of Store Locations on Street Networks

We are concerned with the spatial structure of urban agglomeration. To reveal locational strategies of stores in city centers, we are developing novel methods of space-time analytics.

Working with Dr. Mei-Po Kwan, Dr. Atsuyuki Okabe, and Dr. Sara L McLafferty.

Supported by NTT TownPage Co., and CSIS U-Tokyo

Spatial Analysis of Walking with a Focus on Food Accessibility

Walkability studies attract great attention because these studies contribute to improving the living environment for human health. This project focuses on the daily shopping environment and analyzes the relationships between the step counts of residents and the accessibility of grocery stores, to corroborate the framework of making a walkable city.

Working with Dr. Mei-Po Kwan, Dr. Kimihiro Hino, and Dr. Ikuho Yamada.

Supported by Yokohama City and CSIS U-Tokyo

Railyard Redevelopment and Environmental Justice

Across the U.S., many railyards have been converted into large-scale mixed-used lands or intermodal zones. We are interested in mapping these areas and investigating the relationships between their new land use and their surrounding environment/historical background. Details are here (SMIIL Lab).

Working with Dr. Julie L. Cidell, and Mr. William Richardson.

Visualizing Cultural Regions while Using Web Maps

The objective of this project is to create a digital archive while utilizing web maps in order to understand living space. The target area is Ritto City in Shiga Prefecture. For instance, we have developed a web map to show the regional characteristics of an annual fire festival, Sagicho.

Working with Dr. Kayo Okabe, Dr. Yoshinori Kasai, Dr. Akinobu Matsumoto, Mr, Atsushi Nakagawa, and Dr. Kazuhiro Takeyama.

Supported by Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University and Ritto City

Measuring the Socioeconomic Impacts of Bridge Closures

Currently, the nation’s aging transportation infrastructures are deteriorating rapidly; so, effective and fair investment is important to maintain them. This project aims to demonstrate the significance of including socioeconomic and accessibility impacts in the process of deciding how civil infrastructures should be repaired. We include the significance in some realistic simulations of bridge maintenance closures.

Working with Dr. Arnab Chakraborty, Dr. Nora El-Gohari, Mr. Eyuphan Koc, and others.

Supported by NSF (Open Knowledge Network for Civic Infrastructure Systems)

Spatial Analysis of Place-based Tax Incentives in U.S. Cities.

The main purpose of place-based tax incentives is to improve low-income neighborhoods by mitigating uneven urban development patterns. However, legal experts have been pointing out that these projects may be undermining original intention. We are conducting spatial analyses to verify that the laws have the intended effects.

Working with Dr. Michelle D Layser.

Virtual Cemetery Walk: U of I Pioneers' Biographies

As a part of the Mapping History Project, we created an ESRI Story Map illustrating the history of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Our story map focuses on the achievements of pioneers whose graves are in the Mount Hope or Roselawn Cemeteries. Here is the link to the story map. We hope you enjoy this virtual tour.

Working with Mr. Ryan Ross, Dr. Julie L Cidell, and Dr. Brian J Jefferson.

Maps on Human-Environment Histories of Japan and West Africa.

I made maps that illustrate environmental histories of some of Japan’s rivers for a book by Dr. Roderick I Willson. I also made maps of irrigated agriculture in West Africa for a book by Dr. Mauro Nobili.

Working with Dr. Roderick Ike Willson, and Dr. Mauro Nobili.

Capturing Relative Locations among Moving Objects: A Case of Team Sports Games

Thanks to advanced data acquisition technologies such as video tracking systems and GPS, spatiotemporal data of individual players of sports have become available recently. To make the raw data more useful information, we developed practical methods for analyzing spatial configurations of soccer players in games.

Working with Dr. Yukio Sadahiro, Mr. Shota Mishio, Dr. Tetsuo Kobayashi.

Supported by Japan Football Association Academy Fukushima, and Prozone. 

Hosting Mapping Parties to  Deepen a Local Community Bond

As part of a safety drill, we hosted a mapping party collecting AED locations and editing OpenStreetMap in a group. Also, we created a short movie that many volunteers danced in front of AEDs to distribute the locational information where AEDs are installed (Chofu AED Mapping Movie in Japanese).  

Working with Dr. Taich Huruhashi, Dr. Satoshi Shibata, Mr. Junpei Nagao and others.

Supported by Chofu City in Tokyo, Japan.

Exploring a Historical Living Environment through Spatial Analysis of Wells

We analyzed the location of public wells in some districts in Okinawa. We used the Voronoi diagram to visualize the nearest wells for each house. To compare the outputs of Voronoi diagrams and reality, an interview with five elderly residents was also conducted.

Working with Dr. Kimihiro Hino, Mr. Hongjik Kim, and Mr. Takayuki Hamada,

Supported by Townscape & Housing Lab (led by Dr. Yasushi Asami)

Developing Disaster Prevention Information System Using Space-Time Population Data

To prepare for big earthquakes in near future, we developed GIS-based methods for estimating the approximate number of evacuating students and campus town visitors using class registration data and smartphone locational data.

Working with Dr. Atsuyuki Okabe, Dr. Norio Iguchi, and others.

Supported by ZENRIN DataCom Co., and SACRE in AGU