Maurizio Gibin

In February 2020 I joined Department of Geography at UCL again after thirteen years as a Senior Research Fellow. I am currently working at the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC) as a Senior Data Scientist.

More about Dr Gibin

From 2006 to 2009, I worked as a KTP associate at Southwark Primary Care Trust and UCL on the following research topics:

• spatial epidemiology: working on tools and algorithms to detect epidemic clusters of diseases using spatio temporal clustering detection techniques and better deliver health services using spatial analysis and geodemographics.
• health geodemographics. I worked on the development of bespoke geodemographic classification targeted to certain health conditions. Through an agreement with NHS I gained permission to analyse anonimysed patient data from general practices and from the A&E of six major London Hospitals,
• mapping: new ways to visualise spatial health data and communicate to a proper audience, applying the training on data visualization provided by Edward Tufte.

In 2009 I joined Birkbeck College to work as a Lecturer in Geographic Information Science. I was module convenor of 10 GIS technical modules including geovisualisation, scripting, algorithms, health GIS and spatial analysis. Other activities included induction of new students, acting as personal tutor to all MSc students, training in research, overseeing the MSc projects and PhD students.

I 2014 I moved to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Unit D2 as a Contract Agent FG IV with the job title of Scientific Officer GIS Expert. My main duties in the unit were to provide scientific advice and spatial data products  around three main domains of activity: the implementation and monitoring of the Common Fisheries Policy CFP, the Estimation of fishing effort at high spatial resolution using machine learning techniques and Automatic Identification System (AIS) data and the EU Fisheries Data Collection Framework Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF).

 

Publications

Journal articles

• Druon, J.-N., Gascuel, D., Gibin, M., Zanzi, A., Fromentin, J.-M., Colloca, F., Hélaouët, P., Coll, M., Mannini, A., Bluemel, J. K., Piroddi, C., Bastardie, F., MaciasMoy, D., Vasilakopoulos, P., Winker, H., Serpetti, N., Guillen, J., Palialexis, A., Gras, M., Martinsohn, J. (2021). Mesoscale productivity fronts and local fishing opportunities in the European Seas. Fish and Fisheries, 00, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12585
• Holmes, S. J., Natale, F., Gibin, M., Guillen, J., Alessandrini, A., Vespe, M., Osio, G. Where did the vessels go? An analysis of the EU fishing fleet gravitation between home ports, fishing grounds, landing ports and markets. PLOS ONE, May 21, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230494.
• Guillen, J., Natale, F., Carvalho, N., Casey, J., Hofherr, J., Druon, J-N., Fiore, G., Gibin, M., Zanzi, A., Martinsohn, J. Th. Global seafood consumption footprint. AMBIO A Journal of the Human Environment 05/2018; DOI:10.1007/s13280-018-1060-9.
• Guillen, J., Holmes, S. J., Carvalho, N., Casey, J., Dörner, H., Gibin, M., Mannini, A., Vasilakopoulos, P., Zanzi, A. A Review of the European Union Landing Obligation Focusing on Its Implications for Fisheries and the Environment. Sustainability 03/2018; 10(4)., DOI:10.3390/su10040900.
• Vespe, M., Gibin, M., Alessandrini, A., Natale, F., Mazzarella, F. Osio, G. "Mapping EU fishing activities using ship tracking data", Journal of Maps 06/2016;, DOI:10.1080/17445647.2016.1195299.
• Petersen, J., Gibin, M., Simms, I., Sile, B. "Identifying and interpreting spatiotemporal variation in diagnoses of infectious syphilis among men, England: 2009 to 2013", Sexually Transmitted Infections, Volume 92, Issue 3, BMJ Publishing, doi:10.1136/sextrans-2015-052306.
• Natale, F., Gibin, M., Alessandrini, A., Vespe, M., Paulrud, A. "Mapping Fishing Effort through AIS Data", PloS one, e0130746, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130746.
• Simms, I., Gibin, M., Petersen, J. "Location, location location: what can geographic information science (GIS) offer sexual health research"?, Sexually Transmitted Infections , ISSN 1368-4973. Online since 9th June 2014, doi:10.1136/sextrans-2014-051695.
• Willis, I., Gibin, M., Barros, J., Webber, R. "Applying neighbourhood classification systems to natural hazards: a case study of Mt Vesuvius", Journal of Natural Hazards, Volume 70, Number 1, pages 1-22, January 2014, doi:10.1007/s11069-010-9648-9.
• Mann, S., Briant, R., Gibin, M., "Spatial determinants of local government action on climate change: an analysis of local authorities in England", Local Environment, Volume 18, May 2013, doi:10.1080/13549839.2013.798633.
• Petersen, J., Mateos, P., Gibin, M., Longley, P.A. "Names-based classification of accident and emergency department users", Health and Place, 35 pages, September 2011, doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.09.010.
• Petersen, J., Gibin, M., Longley, P.A., Mateos, P., Atkinson, P.,Ashby, D. "Geodemographics as a tool for targeting neighbourhoods in public health campaigns", Journal of Geographic Information Systems, Volume 13, Number 2, 2011, pages 173 - 192, doi:10.1007/s10109-010-0113-9.
• Hudson-Smith A., Crooks A., Gibin M., Milton R., Batty M.  "Neogeography and Web 2.0: Concepts, Tools and Applications", Journal of Location Based Services, Volume 3, Issue 2, pages 118 - 145, June 2009.
• Petersen, J., Atkinson, P., Petrie, S., Gibin, M., Longley, P.A. "Teenage pregnancy - new tools to support local health campaigns", Health and Place, 15(1), p 300-7, March 2009.
• Gibin M., Singleton, A.D., Milton, R., Mateos, P., Longley, P.A. "Exploratory Cartographic Visualisation of London using the Google Maps" in Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, vol.1 number 2, July 2008, doi:10.1007/s12061-008-9005-5.

Reports published by the EU Joint Research Centre Publications Office

Read the reports

Research

Current

My main research interests are spatial analysis, spatial modelling and visualization that have been applied to geodemographics, epidemiology and human mobility data. During my work as a GIS Expert at the Fisheries and Aquaculture Unit at the EU Joint Research Centre I extended my research to the biological domain of spatial data to the modelling of vessel's position data, which at the end, turned out to be very useful for the analysis of human mobility data.

At the CDRC I manage several datasets and I am working to create research ready data products using human mobility and footfall data and contribute to research on the digitalisation of old phone directories from 1880 to 1984 (preliminary results were presented at GISRUK 2021.

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In 2021 I was involved in the Local Data Spaces Project from ADRUK that was awarded the 2021 ONS Research Excellence Award. You can find more information on the Office for National Statistics website:

• Project boosting local authority COVID responses wins top 2021 ONS Research Excellence Award
• ONS Research Excellence Awards

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Past research

Estimation of fishing effort at high spatial resolution using machine learning techniques and Automatic Identification System (AIS) data

Automatic Identification System, in short AIS data is a typical example of Big Data in GIS: voluminous, noisy and requires dedicated computational infrastructures for storing and analysis. The estimation of fishing effort requires knowledge in times series analysis and movement analysis. Among the different approaches I used an unsupervised technique known as Gaussian Mixture Models at the beginning but I then moved to more sophisticated models including Hidden Markov Models, Logistic Regression, Random Forests, Cluster Analysis and Artificial Neural Networks. Since 2016, the first EU-wide high-resolution fishing effort layer for the large fleet of EU trawlers is available for download on the JRC Open Data Catalogue.