UIA

Urban Intelligence & Analytics

Understanding cities to build better futures

Cities are living, breathing systems. Every day, millions of people make choices about where to live, how to travel, where to work, and how to spend their time. These individual decisions interact with infrastructure, policies, and the environment in complex ways — often producing outcomes no one planned.

Urban Intelligence and Analytics exists to make sense of this complexity.

We use data, computer models, and artificial intelligence to understand how cities work, how they change over time, and how policy decisions can lead to better outcomes for people and places. Our aim is simple: to help decision-makers explore what might happen before choices are locked in.

What do we do?

We build realistic computer simulations of cities and their populations, allowing us to explore how urban systems interact. We are currently involved in a number of projects exploring how housing, transport, energy, health, and the environment interact. A large part of our work involves the development of agent-based models, microsimulation and synthetic population generation.

Contact

Prof Alison Heppenstall

Alison.Heppenstall@glasgow.ac.uk

Webpage

Dr Yahya Gamal

Yahya.Gamalaldin@glasgow.ac.uk

Webpage

Group members

Prof Alison Heppenstall

Group Leader

Alison.Heppenstall@glasgow.ac.uk

Webpage

Dr Yahya Gamal

Group Leader

Yahya.Gamalaldin@glasgow.ac.uk

Webpage

Associates members

Dr Ricardo Colasanti

Associate

R.L.Colasanti@leeds.ac.uk

Webpage

Dr Corinna Elsenbroich

Associate

Corinna.Elsenbroich@glasgow.ac.uk

Webpage

Daniel Konioukhov

Associate

3174941K@student.gla.ac.uk

Webpage

Dr Pengyuan Liu

Associate

Pengyuan.Liu@glasgow.ac.uk

Webpage

Tatsuya Mitomi

Associate

Tatsuya.Mitomi@glasgow.ac.uk

Webpage

Dr Gary Polhill

Associate

Gary.Polhill@hutton.ac.uk

Webpage

Collaborators

Dr Alessia Calafiore

Collaborator

ACalafio@ed.ac.uk

Webpage

Prof Andrew Crooks

Collaborator

ATCrooks@buffalo.edu

Webpage

Prof Tatiana Filatova

Collaborator

T.Filatova@tudelft.nl

Webpage

Projects

We are involved in a number of ongoing projects

AI4CI

An applied AI Hub that is developing AI for collective intelligence at a national scale.

Housing markets

Developing a UK housing ABM to explore the impacts of housing market policies.

Individual mobility

Developing mobility simulation methods accounting for activity modifications under intervention scenarios.

HealthMod

Policy modelling for health and for exploring the relationship between wealth and health.

Synthetic population generation

Using systems science approaches to understand the impacts of health interventions on populations

OPTIMA

Simulating the health impacts for populations of 15-minutes neighbourhoods.

SIPHER

Using System Science approaches to understand the impacts of health interventions on populations.

ExAMPLER

Exploring the challenges and opportunities of exascale computation for the ABM social science community

Uncertainty quantification

Understanding and visualising spatio-temporal uncertainties in urban simulations.

Publications (From 2023)

2026

Lomax, Nik, Rice, Hugh, Hoehn, Andreas, Hughes, Ceri, Heppenstall, Alison, Elsenbroich, Corinna and Meier, Petra (2026) An inclusive economy classification of British Local Authority Districts and assessment of its association with life expectancy and lifespan variation. Population, Space and Place, 32(1), e70151. (doi: 10.1002/psp.70151)
10.1002/psp.70151
Feng, Zixin , Zhao, Qunshan and Heppenstall, Alison (2026) Exploring the influencing factors of public electric vehicle charger usage in Great Britain. Journal of Transport Geography, 134, 104667. (doi: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2026.104667)
10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2026.104667
Feng, Zixin , Zhao, Qunshan and Heppenstall, Alison (2026) Using agent-based models to simulate the electric vehicle driving behaviours in Great Britain. Cities, 172, 106864. (doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2026.106864)
10.1016/j.cities.2026.106864

2025

Birkin, Mark, Ballantyne, Patrick, Bullock, Seth, Heppenstall, Alison, Kwon, Heeseo, Malleson, Nick, Yao, Jing and Zanchetta, Anna (2025) Digital twins and AI for healthy and sustainable cities. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 120, 102305. (doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2025.102305)
10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2025.102305
Rice, Hugh P., Hoehn, Andreas, Meier, Petra, Heppenstall, Alison and Lomax, Nik (2025) An inclusive economy dataset for wards in Great Britain using administrative and synthetic data sources. Scientific Data, 12(1), 1230. (doi: 10.1038/s41597-025-05502-x) (PMID:40664712) (PMCID:PMC12264001)
10.1038/s41597-025-05502-x
Hjelmskog, Annika, Boyd, Jennifer, Stevenson, Amy, Pollack, Roxana, Elsenbroich, Corinna, Heppenstall, Alison, Toney, Jaime, Winterbottom, Jo and Meier, Petra (2025) The effect of climate mitigation and adaptation policies on health and health inequalities: a systematic review. Lancet Planetary Health, 9(7), 101277. (doi: 10.1016/j.lanplh.2025.06.001) (PMID:40645199)
10.1016/j.lanplh.2025.06.001
Richards, Thomas C., Heppenstall, Alison, Oldroyd, Rachel A., Barr, Victoria and Beecham, Roger (2025) Using OpenPrescribing.net to evaluate neighbourhood-level prescribing of inhalers for asthma and COPD. Scientific Reports, 15, 18089. (doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-02969-x) (PMID:40413267) (PMCID:PMC12103567)
10.1038/s41598-025-02969-x
Gamal, Yahya, Heppenstall, Alison, Strachan, William, Colasanti, Ricardo and Zia, Kashif (2025) An analysis of spatial and temporal uncertainty propagation in agent-based models. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 383(2293), 20240229. (doi: 10.1098/rsta.2024.0229)(PMID:40172560) (PMCID:PMC12105802)
10.1098/rsta.2024.0229
Kakampakou, Lydia, Stokes, Jonathan, Hoehn, Andreas, de Kamps, Marc, Lawniczak, Wiktoria, Arnold, Kellyn F., Hensor, Elizabeth M.A., Heppenstall, Alison J. and Gilthorpe, Mark S. (2025) Simulating hierarchical data to assess the utility of ecological versus multilevel analyses in obtaining individual-level causal effects. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 25, 79. (doi: 10.1186/s12874-025-02504-6) (PMID:40121398) (PMCID:PMC11929225)
10.1186/s12874-025-02504-6

2024

Pollack, R. et al. (2024) How could 20-minute neighbourhoods impact health and health inequalities? A policy scoping review. BMC Public Health, 24, 3426. (doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20928-5) (PMID:39696117) (PMCID:PMC11653922)
10.1186/s12889-024-20928-5
Bullock, S. et al. (2024) Artificial intelligence for collective intelligence: A national-scale research strategy. Knowledge Engineering Review, 39, e10. (doi: 10.1017/S0269888924000110)
10.1017/S0269888924000110
Olmez, Sedar, Heppenstall, Alison, Ge, Jiaqi, Elsenbroich, Corinna and Birks, Dan (2024) Mitigating housing market shocks: an agent-based reinforcement learning approach with implications for real-time decision support. Journal of Simulation, 18(6), pp. 921-939. (doi: 10.1080/17477778.2024.2375446) (PMID:39691552) (PMCID:PMC11649216)
10.1080/17477778.2024.2375446
Gamal, Yahya, Elsenbroich, Corinna, Gilbert, Nigel, Heppenstall, Alison and Zia, Kashif (2024) A behavioural agent-based model for housing markets: impact of financial shocks in the UK. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 27(4), 5. (doi: 10.18564/jasss.5518)
10.18564/jasss.5518
Squires, H. et al. (2024) The PHEM-B toolbox of methods for incorporating the influences on Behaviour into Public Health Economic Models. BMC Public Health, 24(1), 2794. (doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20225-1) (PMID:39395958)(PMCID:PMC11475213)
10.1186/s12889-024-20225-1
Olmez, Sedar, Birks, Dan, Heppenstall, Alison and Ge, Jiaqi (2024) Learning the rational choice perspective: a reinforcement learning approach to simulating offender behaviours in criminological agent-based models. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 112, 102141. (doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2024.102141)
10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2024.102141
Kopasker, D. et al. (2024) Evaluating the influence of taxation and social security policies on psychological distress: a microsimulation study of the UK during the COVID-19 economic crisis. Social Science and Medicine, 351, 116953. (doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116953) (PMID:38759385) (PMCID:PMC7617584)
10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116953
Heppenstall, Alison, Wang, Mingshu, Demsar, Urska, Lemmens, Rob and Yao, Jing (2024) Preface. AGILE: GIScience Series, 5, 1. (doi: 10.5194/agile-giss-5-1-2024)
10.5194/agile-giss-5-1-2024
Brown, H. et al. (2024) Association between individual level characteristics and take-up of a Minimum Income Guarantee for Pensioners: Panel Data Analysis using data from the British Household Panel survey 1999–2002. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 9, 100847. (doi: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100847)
10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100847

2023

Wijermans, Nanda, Scholz, Geeske, Chappin, Emile, Heppenstall, Alison, Filatova, Tatiana, Polhill, J. Gareth, Semeniuk, Christina and Stöppler, Frithjof (2023) Agent decision-making: the elephant in the room: enabling the justification of decision model fit in social-environmental models. Environmental Modelling and Software, 170, 105850. (doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105850)
10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105850
Griffiths, C. et al. (2023) A complex systems approach to obesity: a transdisciplinary framework for action. Perspectives in Public Health, 143(6), pp. 305-309. (doi: 10.1177/17579139231180761) (PMID:37395317) (PMCID:PMC10683338)
10.1177/17579139231180761
Antosz, Patrycja, Birks, Dan, Edmonds, Bruce, Heppenstall, Alison, Meyer, Ruth, Polhill, J. Gareth, O'Sullivan, David and Wijermans, Nanda (2023) What do you want theory for? A pragmatic analysis of the roles of "theory" in agent-based modelling. Environmental Modelling and Software, 168, 105802. (doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105802)
10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105802
Höhn, A. et al. (2023) Systems science methods in public health: what can they contribute to our understanding of and response to the cost-of-living crisis? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 77(9), pp. 610-616. (doi: 10.1136/jech-2023-220435) (PMID:37328262) (PMCID:PMC10423532)
10.1136/jech-2023-220435
An, L. et al. (2023) Modeling agent decision and behavior in the light of data science and artificial intelligence. Environmental Modelling and Software, 166, 105713. (doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105713)
10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105713
Franklin, R. S. et al. (2023) Making space in geographical analysis. Geographical Analysis, 55(2), pp. 325-341. (doi: 10.1111/gean.12325)
10.1111/gean.12325