Call For Papers NARSC-NECTAR organized sessions on: 

Big data in regional science and transport

63rd Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, November 9-12, 2010, Minneapolis, U.S.A.

Call for Papers

"Cluster 8 of NECTAR on Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) is a organising a special session for 63rd Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, November 9-12, Minneapolis, on big data applications in regional science and transport.

Topic of interest

The vast (and ever increasing) ICT penetration has resulted to a new pool of data, known as ‘big data’, which captures almost every aspect of human activity. The assessment of spatial human interaction (and associated usage of infrastructure and resources) via big data opens a new stream of research and applications that is being proven useful for urban and regional planning, as the data brings in very detailed temporal and spatial information. Measurements coming from mobile sensors such as GPS navigators or mobile phones also offer the opportunity to study human interaction in their use of transport infrastructure (roads, railways, airports, etc.) at a very precise temporal and spatial resolution. The meeting aims to elaborate further on this area. We are inviting papers for these sessions dealing with: novel big data sources in regional science and transport in particular, methodologies to process big data sources, and novel applications of big data.

We plan to organise a special issue in a leading journal for selected papers.

Submitting an abstract

Submissions must be submitted directly using the website of the conference. Please submit your abstract via: http://www.narsc.org/newsite/conference/online-abstractsession-submission/  and send the submission confirmation to Elizabeth Mack at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Deadline for submissions is June 24th.

Session organisors

Elizabeth Mack, Michigan State University, NECTAR Cluster 8 co-chair, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Emmanouil Tranos, University of Birmingham, NECTAR Cluster 8 co-chair

Laurie Schintler, George Mason University

Karst Geurs, University of Twente, NECTAR chair

NECTAR is a European-based scientific association. The primary objective is to foster research collaboration and exchange of information between experts in the field of transport, communication and mobility from all European countries and the rest of the world. It is a multidisciplinary social science network bringing together a wide variety of perspectives on transport and communication problems and their impacts on society in an international perspective. For further information on NECTAR, use the link: http://www.nectar-eu.eu.

The North American Regional Science Council (NARSC) is one of three international regional science (RSAI) organizations that, together, promote the exchange of knowledge, theory, and analysis of cities and regions across the globe. NARSC fosters exchange across academic disciplines and builds on the understanding that urban and regional issues are best addressed by utilizing tools, methods, and theoretical frameworks specifically designed for regional analysis, as well as concepts, procedures, and analytical techniques of the various social and other sciences. For further information on NARSC, consult: http://www.narsc.org/newsite/