Spotlight On: Duccio Piovani

Role & Project: I am currently a Research Associate for the Urban Dynamics Laboratory project. My work focuses on modelling the spatial interactions at the heart of a city's life, using techniques coming from statistical physics, network theory, and spatial economics. 

How would you summarise your personal research? 

My research is focused on the development of spatial interaction models. I have used these models to study the retail distribution in London by quantifying the role of agglomeration in consumer location choice; describe a city’s hierarchical organisation and spot the centres of interest and finally test new transportation infrastructures by measuring their impact on the city's accessibility distribution.

Tell us a little about the research you’re doing at the moment:

I am trying to understand the relationship between the topological properties of a city’s road network and its retail distribution. How does the form and shape of our road network influence the retail activity of the city? Do these two dimensions of a city’s life follow the same underlying mechanism, and if yes how can we quantify their interdependence? I do this by using in a new way Sir Alan Wilson's models, the full potential of which is yet to be unleashed.

What is your favourite thing about CASA?

CASA is a unique place to do research given its intrinsic interdisciplinary environment. People from all different backgrounds come together moved by their common interest in cities. If sometimes this leads to some difficulty in preliminary discussions, it also  forces researchers out of our comfort zone, and pushes us to test our ideas from different angles.

Where can people find out more about your work? 

You can find a list of my publications on my Google Scholar page:

https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=450h0C0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

And here is the link to my latest publication on retail agglomeration in London:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05304-1