Geography

Profile

Research Interests

• Historical GIS - use of GIS and visualisation methods for the development and analysis of large spatio-temporal databases of regional economic development; Internet-based historical GIS data resources; simulation modelling of regional development
• Historical regional dynamics - economic development of the North-East United States 1850-1900 with particular reference to the coal mining, iron, oil and railroad industries
• Behavioural regional investment - development of new methods for analysing investment diversification that extend the theory of behavioral finance into the regional domain
• Use of advanced data warehousing and spatial data mining techniques to analyse the United States 1880 census and linked data sources
• GIS - use of parallel processing and database methods within a GIS framework; Internet map and database server technologies; interfacing of GIS and environmental modelling techniques using object-oriented methods; environmental applications of GIS

Profile

MA, PhD University of Cambridge
Taught at University of Edinburgh 1980-1995; Co-Director of ESRC Regional Research Laboratory for Scotland
University of Portsmouth 1995-

Current Projects

• Development of an Historical GIS of industrial development in the North-East United States. Major work has been completed to date on the railroad network of the Middle Atlantic States, the mining industry in the Northern Anthracite Coalfield of Pennsylvania and the iron industry of the United States in the 1850's.  The latter is based on the Lesley industrial directory of 1859 and has been undertaken in collaboration with Dr. Anne Knowles of Middlebury College, Vermont.
• Analysis of the relationship between business cycle changes, mining investment and corporate decision-making by railroad companies in the anthracite coalfields from the end of the Civil War to the 1902 coal strike. This study utilises the historical GIS but is based on a very wide range of both quantitative and qualitative archival sources. A book derived from this work is to be published by the University of Scranton Press.
• Analysis of the growth of the Oil Industry of Pennsylvania 1859-1879, using the new theory of behavioural regional investment that I have developed.
• Implementation of web-based interfaces to Historical GIS resources using state-of-the-art ORACLE database webserver tools and ESRI Internet Map Server technology. This work has resulted in the development of Volume 1 of a large planned electronic reference resource on the 19th century Coal Breakers of the Northern Anthracite Coalfield, which will also extend to interactive digital atlas development. The work for Volume 1 has been undertaken in conjunction with the Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
• Development of an interface between GIS and ORACLE data warehousing technology to analyse the employment and demographic characteristics of heavy industrial workers in the US 1880 census

Potential PhD topics

• Historical GIS as a framework for regional economic analysis
• The growth of the cotton textile industry of New England in the 19th century
• Railroads and urban growth in the N.E. United States before 1900
• Use of the Internet for the dissemination and visualisation of historical geo-information
• Database methods in GIS
• Object-oriented simulation and GIS
• Environmental applications of GIS

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Research Publications and Presentations before 2008 | Grants