Big Data For Regional Science

Recent technological advancements and other related factors and trends are contributing to the production of an astoundingly large and rapidly accelerating collection of data, or ‘Big Data’. This data now allows us to examine urban and regional phenomena in ways that were previously not possible. Despite the tremendous potential of big data for regional science, its use and application in this context is fraught with issues and challenges. This book brings together leading contributors to present an interdisciplinary, agenda-setting and action-oriented platform for research and practice in the urban and regional community. This book provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and cutting-edge perspective on big data for regional science. Chapters contain a collection of research notes contributed by experts from all over the world with a wide array of disciplinary backgrounds. The content is organized along four themes: sources of big data; integration, processing and management of big data; analytics for big data; and, higher level policy and programmatic considerations. As well as concisely and comprehensively synthesising work done to date, the book also considers future challenges and prospects for the use of big data in regional science. Big Data for Regional Science provides a seminal contribution to the field of regional science and will appeal to a broad audience, including those at all levels of academia, industry, and government.

Recent technological advancements and other related factors and trends are contributing to the production of an astoundingly large and rapidly accelerating collection of data, or ‘Big Data’. This data now allows us to examine urban and regional phenomena in ways that were previously not possible. Despite the tremendous potential of big data for regional science, its use and application in this context is fraught with issues and challenges. This book brings together leading contributors to present an interdisciplinary, agenda-setting and action-oriented platform for research and practice in the urban and regional community. This book provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and cutting-edge perspective on big data for regional science. Chapters contain a collection of research notes contributed by experts from all over the world with a wide array of disciplinary backgrounds. The content is organized along four themes: sources of big data; integration, processing and management of big data; analytics for big data; and, higher level policy and programmatic considerations. As well as concisely and comprehensively synthesising work done to date, the book also considers future challenges and prospects for the use of big data in regional science. Big Data for Regional Science provides a seminal contribution to the field of regional science and will appeal to a broad audience, including those at all levels of academia, industry, and government.

This book examines major policy and planning issues in development studies from the regional science perspective. It investigates questions such as: “How are communities able to deal with uncertainties raised by conflicts, technology, and external shocks in the process of development?”; “How can nations achieve sustainable development in terms of resource allocation and management?”; and “How can developing countries improve their economic competitiveness while maintaining the objectives of equitable and coordinated growth among different regions?” using case studies that focus on different subfields, like infrastructure, environment, data science, sustainability and resilience. The book is organized in three parts. Part I clarifies fundamental issues regarding development studies and regional science in general, while Part II includes several case studies that address development-related opportunities and challenges with a focus on Asian countries. Lastly, Part III offers a global perspective and explores development experiences from countries throughout the world. Featuring contributions by leading academics and practitioners working at various organizations linked to international development, and including multidisciplinary analyses, the book appeals to students who are interested in development studies and regional science. It also offers planners and policymakers fresh insights into regional economic development.

This unique book demonstrates the utility of big data approaches in human geography and planning. Offering a carefully curated selection of case studies, it reveals how researchers are accessing big data, what this data looks like and how such data can offer new and important insights and knowledge.

This encyclopedia will be an essential resource for our times, reflecting the fact that we currently are living in an expanding data-driven world. Technological advancements and other related trends are contributing to the production of an astoundingly large and exponentially increasing collection of data and information, referred to in popular vernacular as “Big Data.” Social media and crowdsourcing platforms and various applications ― “apps” ― are producing reams of information from the instantaneous transactions and input of millions and millions of people around the globe. The Internet-of-Things (IoT), which is expected to comprise tens of billions of objects by the end of this decade, is actively sensing real-time intelligence on nearly every aspect of our lives and environment. The Global Positioning System (GPS) and other location-aware technologies are producing data that is specific down to particular latitude and longitude coordinates and seconds of the day. Large-scale instruments, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), are collecting massive amounts of data on our planet and even distant corners of the visible universe. Digitization is being used to convert large collections of documents from print to digital format, giving rise to large archives of unstructured data. Innovations in technology, in the areas of Cloud and molecular computing, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP), to name only a few, also are greatly expanding our capacity to store, manage, and process Big Data. In this context, the Encyclopedia of Big Data is being offered in recognition of a world that is rapidly moving from gigabytes to terabytes to petabytes and beyond. While indeed large data sets have long been around and in use in a variety of fields, the era of Big Data in which we now live departs from the past in a number of key respects and with this departure comes a fresh set of challenges and opportunities that cut across and affect multiple sectors and disciplines, and the public at large. With expanded analytical capacities at hand, Big Data is now being used for scientific inquiry and experimentation in nearly every (if not all) disciplines, from the social sciences to the humanities to the natural sciences, and more. Moreover, the use of Big Data has been well established beyond the Ivory Tower. In today’s economy, businesses simply cannot be competitive without engaging Big Data in one way or another in support of operations, management, planning, or simply basic hiring decisions. In all levels of government, Big Data is being used to engage citizens and to guide policy making in pursuit of the interests of the public and society in general. Moreover, the changing nature of Big Data also raises new issues and concerns related to, for example, privacy, liability, security, access, and even the veracity of the data itself. Given the complex issues attending Big Data, there is a real need for a reference book that covers the subject from a multi-disciplinary, cross-sectoral, comprehensive, and international perspective. The Encyclopedia of Big Data will address this need and will be the first of such reference books to do so. Featuring some 500 entries, from "Access" to "Zillow," the Encyclopedia will serve as a fundamental resource for researchers and students, for decision makers and leaders, and for business analysts and purveyors. Developed for those in academia, industry, and government, and others with a general interest in Big Data, the encyclopedia will be aimed especially at those involved in its collection, analysis, and use. Ultimately, the Encyclopedia of Big Data will provide a common platform and language covering the breadth and depth of the topic for different segments, sectors, and disciplines.

We are living at the dawn of what has been termed ‘the fourth paradigm of science,’ a scientific revolution that is marked by both the emergence of big data science and analytics, and by the increasing adoption of the underlying technologies in scientific and scholarly research practices. Everything about science development or knowledge production is fundamentally changing thanks to the ever-increasing deluge of data. This is the primary fuel of the new age, which powerful computational processes or analytics algorithms are using to generate valuable knowledge for enhanced decision-making, and deep insights pertaining to a wide variety of practical uses and applications. This book addresses the complex interplay of the scientific, technological, and social dimensions of the city, and what it entails in terms of the systemic implications for smart sustainable urbanism. In concrete terms, it explores the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field of smart sustainable urbanism and the unprecedented paradigmatic shifts and practical advances it is undergoing in light of big data science and analytics. This new era of science and technology embodies an unprecedentedly transformative and constitutive power—manifested not only in the form of revolutionizing science and transforming knowledge, but also in advancing social practices, producing new discourses, catalyzing major shifts, and fostering societal transitions. Of particular relevance, it is instigating a massive change in the way both smart cities and sustainable cities are studied and understood, and in how they are planned, designed, operated, managed, and governed in the face of urbanization. This relates to what has been dubbed data-driven smart sustainable urbanism, an emerging approach based on a computational understanding of city systems and processes that reduces urban life to logical and algorithmic rules and procedures, while also harnessing urban big data to provide a more holistic and integrated view or synoptic intelligence of the city. This is increasingly being directed towards improving, advancing, and maintaining the contribution of both sustainable cities and smart cities to the goals of sustainable development. This timely and multifaceted book is aimed at a broad readership. As such, it will appeal to urban scientists, data scientists, urbanists, planners, engineers, designers, policymakers, philosophers of science, and futurists, as well as all readers interested in an overview of the pivotal role of big data science and analytics in advancing every academic discipline and social practice concerned with data–intensive science and its application, particularly in relation to sustainability.

The proposed book will discuss various aspects of big data Analytics. It will deliberate upon the tools, technology, applications, use cases and research directions in the field. Chapters would be contributed by researchers, scientist and practitioners from various reputed universities and organizations for the benefit of readers.

This report improves the evidence base on the role of Data Driven Innovation for promoting growth and well-being, and provide policy guidance on how to maximise the benefits of DDI and mitigate the associated economic and societal risks.