Professor Alison Heppenstall

Professor of Geocomputation (Urban Studies & Social Policy)

email: Alison.Heppenstall@glasgow.ac.uk

Biography

My undergraduate degree was in Archaeology at Grey College, University of Durham. I was always fascinated by the emergence of culture, interactions and movements of past populations. It seemed inevitable that after encountering programming and Geocomputation (which I loved) during my Master’s at the University of Leeds, I fell into a PhD that created and developed agent-based models for empirical applications.

I was lucky enough to have subsequent EPSRC and ESRC Fellowships focused on the building of Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence approaches such as neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, agent-based modelling, microsimulation, data assimilation and uncertainty quantification etc.

Whilst at the University of Leeds, I was involved in the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, Consumer Data Research Centre and the Urban Analytics Programme at the Alan Turing Institute. I held the inaugural ESRC-Turing Fellowship and was awarded the International Society of Computational Economics prize for “outstanding contribution in computational social simulation” from the Italian Research Council in 2022. I am a member of the DSAB at the Joint BioSecurity Council and a member of the Royal Geographical Society.

I am a current Alan Turing Fellow.

Research interests

I am a methodologist - I am interested in adapting and developing AI/ML approaches to solving problems in different domains. I have extensive experience with spatial agent-based models, microsimulation, evolutionary approaches as well as strong interests in uncertainty quantification, reinforcement learning and data assimilation. I am also interested in the development of exascale computation for application in the social sciences. This ties into an ongoing agenda of creating urban digital twins that I am involved with at local and national level.

Research groups

Urban Analytics
Just Cities & Societies

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019

Number of items: 65.

2025

Birkin, Mark, Ballantyne, Patrick, Bullock, Seth, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Kwon, Heeseo, Malleson, Nick, Yao, Jing ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8677-8248 and Zanchetta, Anna (2025) Digital twins and AI for healthy and sustainable cities. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 120, 102305. (doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2025.102305)

Richards, Thomas C., Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Oldroyd, Rachel A., Barr, Victoria and Beecham, Roger (2025) Using OpenPrescribing.net to evaluate neighbourhood-level prescribing of inhalers for asthma and COPD. Scientific Reports, 15, 18089. (doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-02969-x) (PMID:40413267) (PMCID:PMC12103567)

Gamal, Yahya ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2370-6172, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Strachan, William, Colasanti, Ricardo and Zia, Kashif (2025) An analysis of spatial and temporal uncertainty propagation in agent-based models. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 383(2293), 20240229. (doi: 10.1098/rsta.2024.0229) (PMID:40172560)

Kakampakou, Lydia, Stokes, Jonathan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3266-1474, Hoehn, Andreas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7170-1205, de Kamps, Marc, Lawniczak, Wiktoria, Arnold, Kellyn F., Hensor, Elizabeth M.A., Heppenstall, Alison J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Gilthorpe, Mark S. (2025) Simulating hierarchical data to assess the utility of ecological versus multilevel analyses in obtaining individual-level causal effects. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 25, 79. (doi: 10.1186/s12874-025-02504-6) (PMID:40121398) (PMCID:PMC11929225)

Feng, Zixin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7539-9917, Zhao, Qunshan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5549-9457 and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2025) Exploring the Complex Behaviours of Electric Vehicle Drivers Based on an Agent-based Reinforcement Learning Method. In: 19th Annual Social Simulation Conference (SSC 2024), Cracow, Poland, 16-20 Sep 2024, (Accepted for Publication)

2024

Pollack, R. et al. (2024) How could 20-minute neighbourhoods impact health and health inequalities? A policy scoping review. BMC Public Health, 24, 3426. (doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20928-5) (PMID:39696117) (PMCID:PMC11653922)

Bullock, S. et al. (2024) Artificial intelligence for collective intelligence: A national-scale research strategy. Knowledge Engineering Review, 39, e10. (doi: 10.1017/S0269888924000110)

Lomax, Nik, Archer, Luke, Clay, Rob, Fergie, Gillian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9693-0357, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Meier, Petra ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5354-1933 and Winterbottom, Jo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4374-4397 (2024) Modelling the Scottish Child Poverty Targets: Estimating the Effect on Adult Mental Health. Project Report. SIPHER Consortium. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.337651).

Feng, Zixin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7539-9917, Xian, Xinyan, Gamal, Yahya ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2370-6172, Zhao, Qunshan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5549-9457 and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2024) Optimizing the Locations of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in Georgia, USA. In: 32nd ACM International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (SIGSPATIAL '24), Atlanta, GA, USA, 29 Oct - 01 Nov 2024, pp. 733-736. ISBN 9798400711077 (doi: 10.1145/3678717.3700831)

Gamal, Yahya ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2370-6172, Elsenbroich, Corinna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1153-4326, Gilbert, Nigel, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Zia, Kashif (2024) A behavioural agent-based model for housing markets: impact of financial shocks in the UK. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 27(4), 5. (doi: 10.18564/jasss.5518)

Squires, H. et al. (2024) The PHEM-B toolbox of methods for incorporating the influences on Behaviour into Public Health Economic Models. BMC Public Health, 24(1), 2794. (doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20225-1) (PMID:39395958) (PMCID:PMC11475213)

Olmez, Sedar, Birks, Dan, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Ge, Jiaqi (2024) Learning the rational choice perspective: a reinforcement learning approach to simulating offender behaviours in criminological agent-based models. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 112, 102141. (doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2024.102141)

Olmez, Sedar, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Ge, Jiaqi, Elsenbroich, Corinna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1153-4326 and Birks, Dan (2024) Mitigating housing market shocks: an agent-based reinforcement learning approach with implications for real-time decision support. Journal of Simulation, (doi: 10.1080/17477778.2024.2375446) (Early Online Publication)

Lewis, Dylan, Comrie, Emma, Hoehn, Andreas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7170-1205, Lomax, Nikolas, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Purshouse, Robin, Zia, Kashif and Meier, Petra ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5354-1933 (2024) SIPHER Synthetic Population for Individuals in Great Britain (2019-2021) - Interactive R-Shiny Dashboard. (doi: 10.5281/zenodo.12655000) [Website]

Kopasker, D. et al. (2024) Evaluating the influence of taxation and social security policies on psychological distress: a microsimulation study of the UK during the COVID-19 economic crisis. Social Science and Medicine, 351, 116953. (doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116953) (PMID:38759385) (PMCID:PMC7617584)

Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Wang, Mingshu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5260-3143, Demsar, Urska, Lemmens, Rob and Yao, Jing ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8677-8248 (2024) Preface. AGILE: GIScience Series, 5, 1. (doi: 10.5194/agile-giss-5-1-2024)

Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Wang, Mingshu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5260-3143, Demsar, Urska, Lemmens, Rob and Yao, Jing ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8677-8248 (Eds.) (2024) 27th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science “Geographic Information Science for a Sustainable Future”. AGILE: GIScience Series. 5 [Edited Journal]

Wolf, Levi John, Harris, Richard and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (Eds.) (2024) A Research Agenda for Spatial Analysis. Series: Elgar Research Agendas. Edward Elgar. ISBN 9781802203226

Brown, H. et al. (2024) Association between individual level characteristics and take-up of a Minimum Income Guarantee for Pensioners: Panel Data Analysis using data from the British Household Panel survey 1999–2002. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 9, 100847. (doi: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100847)

2023

Wijermans, Nanda, Scholz, Geeske, Chappin, Emile, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Filatova, Tatiana, Polhill, J. Gareth, Semeniuk, Christina and Stöppler, Frithjof (2023) Agent decision-making: the elephant in the room: enabling the justification of decision model fit in social-environmental models. Environmental Modelling and Software, 170, 105850. (doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105850)

Griffiths, C. et al. (2023) A complex systems approach to obesity: a transdisciplinary framework for action. Perspectives in Public Health, 143(6), pp. 305-309. (doi: 10.1177/17579139231180761) (PMID:37395317) (PMCID:PMC10683338)

Antosz, Patrycja, Birks, Dan, Edmonds, Bruce, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Meyer, Ruth, Polhill, J. Gareth, O’Sullivan, David and Wijermans, Nanda (2023) What do you want theory for? A pragmatic analysis of the roles of “theory” in agent-based modelling. Environmental Modelling and Software, 168, 105802. (doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105802)

Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Polhill, J. Gary, Batty, Mike, Hare, Matt, Salt, Doug and Milton, Richard (2023) Exascale Agent-Based Modelling for Policy Evaluation in Real-Time (ExAMPLER). In: 12th International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience 2023), Leeds, UK, 12-15 Sept 2023, 38:1-38:5. ISBN 9783959772884 (doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.GIScience.2023.38)

Feng, Zixin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7539-9917, Zhao, Qunshan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5549-9457 and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2023) Understanding the Complex Behaviours of Electric Vehicle Drivers with Agent-Based Models in Glasgow. In: 12th International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience 2023), Leeds, UK, 14-19 Sept 2023, 29:1-29:6. ISBN 9783959772884 (doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.GIScience.2023.29)

Höhn, A. et al. (2023) Systems science methods in public health: what can they contribute to our understanding of and response to the cost-of-living crisis? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 77(9), pp. 610-616. (doi: 10.1136/jech-2023-220435) (PMID:37328262) (PMCID:PMC10423532)

An, L. et al. (2023) Modeling agent decision and behavior in the light of data science and artificial intelligence. Environmental Modelling and Software, 166, 105713. (doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105713)

Franklin, R. S. et al. (2023) Making space in geographical analysis. Geographical Analysis, 55(2), pp. 325-341. (doi: 10.1111/gean.12325)

2022

Sucharyna Thomas, Leo, Wickham-Jones, Caroline R. and Heppenstall, Alison J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2022) Combining agent-based modelling and geographical information systems to create a new approach for modelling movement dynamics: a case study of Mesolithic Orkney. Open Archaeology, 8, pp. 987-1009. (doi: 10.1515/opar-2022-0257)

Boyd, Jennifer, Wilson, Rebekah, Elsenbroich, Corinna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1153-4326, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Meier, Petra ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5354-1933 (2022) Agent-based modelling of health inequalities following the complexity turn in public health: a systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(24), 16807. (doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416807) (PMID:36554687) (PMCID:PMC9779847)

Wallace, Rosalind, Franklin, Rachel, Grant-Muller, Susan, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Houlden, Victoria (2022) Estimating the social and spatial impacts of Covid mitigation strategies in United Kingdom regions: synthetic data and dashboards. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 15(3), pp. 683-702. (doi: 10.1093/cjres/rsac019)

Ternes, Patricia, Ward, Jonathan A, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Kumar, Vijay, Kieu, Le-Minh and Malleson, Nick (2022) Data assimilation and agent-based modelling: towards the incorporation of categorical agent parameters. Open Research Europe, 1, 131. (doi: 10.12688/openreseurope.14144.2)

Olmez, Sedar, Thompson, Jason, Marfleet, Ellie, Suchak, Keiran, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Manley, Ed, Whipp, Annabel and Vidanaarachchi, Rajith (2022) An agent-based model of heterogeneous driver behaviour and its impact on energy consumption and costs in urban space. Energies, 15(11), 4031. (doi: 10.3390/en15114031)

Urquhart, Ryan, Newing, Andy, Hood, Nicholas and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2022) Last-mile capacity constraints in online grocery fulfilment in Great Britain. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 17(2), pp. 636-651. (doi: 10.3390/jtaer17020033)

Arnold, Kellyn F., Gilthorpe, Mark S., Alwan, Nisreen A., Heppenstall, Alison J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Tomova, Georgia D., McKee, Martin and Tennant, Peter W.G. (2022) Estimating the effects of lockdown timing on COVID-19 cases and deaths in England: a counterfactual modelling study. PLoS ONE, 17(4), e0263432. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263432) (PMID:35421094) (PMCID:PMC9009677)

Gadd, Sarah C., Comber, Alexis, Gilthorpe, Mark S., Suchak, Keiran and Heppenstall, Alison J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2022) Simplifying the interpretation of continuous time models for spatio-temporal networks. Journal of Geographical Systems, 24(2), pp. 171-198. (doi: 10.1007/s10109-020-00345-z)

McCulloch, Josie, Ge, Jiaqi, Ward, Jonathan A., Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Polhill, J. Gareth and Malleson, Nick (2022) Calibrating agent-based models using uncertainty quantification methods. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 25(2), 1. (doi: 10.18564/jasss.4791)

Wu, Guoqiang, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Meier, Petra ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5354-1933, Purshouse, Robin and Lomax, Nik (2022) A synthetic population dataset for estimating small area health and socio-economic outcomes in Great Britain. Scientific Data, 9, 19. (doi: 10.1038/s41597-022-01124-9) (PMID:35058471) (PMCID:PMC8776798)

Gadd, Sarah C., Comber, Alexis, Tennant, Peter, Gilthorpe, Mark S. and Heppenstall, Alison J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2022) The utility of multilevel models for continuous-time feature selection of spatio-temporal networks. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 91, 101728. (doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2021.101728)

Yang, Yuanxuan, Beecham, Roger, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Turner, Andy and Comber, Alexis (2022) Understanding the impacts of public transit disruptions on bikeshare schemes and cycling behaviours using spatiotemporal and graph-based analysis: a case study of four London Tube strikes. Journal of Transport Geography, 98, 103255. (doi: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103255)

Malleson, Nick, Birkin, Mark, Birks, Daniel, Ge, Jiaqi, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Manley, Ed, McCulloch, Josie and Ternes, Patricia (2022) Agent-based modelling for urban analytics: state of the art and challenges. AI Communications, 35(4), pp. 393-406. (doi: 10.3233/AIC-220114)

2021

An, L. et al. (2021) Challenges, tasks, and opportunities in modeling agent-based complex systems. Ecological Modelling, 457, 109685. (doi: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2021.109685)

Smith, Dianna M., Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Campbell, Monique (2021) Estimating health over space and time: a review of spatial microsimulation applied to public health. J - An Open Access Journal of Multidisciplinary Science, 4(2), pp. 182-192. (doi: 10.3390/j4020015)

Olmez, Sedar, Douglas-Mann, Liam, Manley, Ed, Suchak, Keiran, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Birks, Dan and Whipp, Annabel (2021) Exploring the impact of driver adherence to speed limits and the interdependence of roadside collisions in an urban environment: an agent-based modelling approach. Applied Sciences, 11(12), 5336. (doi: 10.3390/app11125336)

Crooks, Andrew, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Malleson, Nick and Manley, Ed (2021) Agent-based modeling and the city: A gallery of applications. In: Shi, Wenzhong, Goodchild, Michael F., Batty, Michael, Kwan, Mei-Po and Zhang, Anshu (eds.) Urban Informatics. Series: Urban book series. Springer, pp. 885-910. ISBN 9789811589836 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-15-8983-6_46)

Whipp, Annabel, Malleson, Nicolas, Ward, Jonathan and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2021) Estimates of the ambient population: assessing the utility of conventional and novel data sources. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 10(3), 131. (doi: 10.3390/ijgi10030131)

Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Crooks, Andrew, Malleson, Nick, Manley, Ed, Ge, Jiaqi and Batty, Michael (2021) Future developments in geographical agent‐based models: challenges and opportunities. Geographical Analysis, 53(1), pp. 76-91. (doi: 10.1111/gean.12267) (PMID:33678813) (PMCID:PMC7898830)

Roxburgh, Nicholas, Stringer, Lindsay C., Evans, Andrew, GC, Raj K., Malleson, Nick and Heppenstall, Alison J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2021) Impacts of multiple stressors on mountain communities: Insights from an agent-based model of a Nepalese village. Global Environmental Change, 66, 102203. (doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102203)

Roxburgh, Nicholas, Evans, Andrew, GC, Raj K., Malleson, Nick, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Stringer, Lindsay (2021) An empirically informed agent-based model of a Nepalese smallholder village. MethodsX, 8, 101276. (doi: 10.1016/j.mex.2021.101276) (PMID:34434796) (PMCID:PMC8374244)

2020

Yang, Yuanxuan, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Turner, Andy and Comber, Alexis (2020) Using graph structural information about flows to enhance short-term demand prediction in bike-sharing systems. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 83, 101521. (doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2020.101521)

Hood, Nick, Urquhart, Ryan, Newing, Andy and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2020) Sociodemographic and spatial disaggregation of e-commerce channel use in the grocery market in Great Britain. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 55, 102076. (doi: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102076)

Malleson, Nick, Minors, Kevin, Kieu, Le-Minh, Ward, Jonathan A., West, Andrew and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2020) Simulating crowds in real time with agent-based modelling and a particle filter. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 23(3), p. 3. (doi: 10.18564/jasss.4266)

Olner, Dan, Mitchell, Gordon, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Pryce, Gwilym (2020) The spatial economics of energy justice: modelling the trade impacts of increased transport costs in a low carbon transition and the implications for UK regional inequality. Energy Policy, 140, 111378. (doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111378)

Owen, Alice and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2020) Making the case for simulation: Unlocking carbon reduction through simulation of individual ‘middle actor’ behaviour. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 47(3), pp. 457-472. (doi: 10.1177/2399808318784597)

Xiang, Lili, Stillwell, John, Burns, Luke and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2020) Measuring and assessing regional education inequalities in China under changing policy regimes. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 13(1), pp. 91-112. (doi: 10.1007/s12061-019-09293-8)

Manson, S. et al. (2020) Methodological issues of spatial agent-based models. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 23(1), 3. (doi: 10.18564/jasss.4174)

Kieu, Le-Minh, Malleson, Nicolas and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2020) Dealing with uncertainty in agent-based models for short-term predictions. Royal Society Open Science, 7(1), 191074. (doi: 10.1098/rsos.191074) (PMID:32218939) (PMCID:PMC7029931)

2019

Levine, Stephen Z., Gadd, Sarah C., Tennant, Peter W. G., Heppenstall, Alison J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Boehnke, Jan R. and Gilthorpe, Mark S. (2019) Analysing trajectories of a longitudinal exposure: A causal perspective on common methods in lifecourse research. PLoS ONE, 14(12), e0225217. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225217) (PMID:31800576) (PMCID:PMC6892534)

Meier, P. et al. (2019) The SIPHER Consortium: introducing the new UK hub for systems science in public health and health economic research. Wellcome Open Research, 4, 174. (doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15534.1) (PMID:31815191) (PMCID:PMC6880277)

Yang, Yuanxuan, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Turner, Andy and Comber, Alexis (2019) A spatiotemporal and graph-based analysis of dockless bike sharing patterns to understand urban flows over the last mile. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 77, 101361. (doi: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2019.101361)

Yang, Yuanxuan, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Turner, Andy and Comber, Alexis (2019) Who, where, why and when? Using smart card and social media data to understand urban mobility. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 8(6), 271. (doi: 10.3390/ijgi8060271)

Arnold, K.F., Ellison, G.T.H., Gadd, S., Textor, J., Tennant, P.W.G., Heppenstall, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Gilthorpe, M.S. (2019) Adjustment for time-invariant and time-varying confounders in ‘unexplained residuals’ models for longitudinal data within a causal framework and associated challenges. Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 28(5), pp. 1347-1364. (doi: 10.1177/0962280218756158) (PMID:29451093) (PMCID:PMC6484949)

Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Crooks, Andrew (2019) Guest editorial for spatial agent-based models: current practices and future trends. GeoInformatica, 23(2), pp. 163-167. (doi: 10.1007/s10707-019-00349-y)

Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Crooks, Andrew (Eds.) (2019) Special Issue on Spatial Agent-Based Models: Current Practices and Future Trends. Geoinformatica. 23(2) [Edited Journal]

Gulma, Usman L., Evans, Andy, Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Malleson, Nick (2019) Diversity and burglary: Do community differences matter? Transactions in GIS, 23(2), pp. 181-202. (doi: 10.1111/tgis.12511)

Alotaibi, Nawaf Ibrahim, Evans, Andrew J., Heppenstall, Alison J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 and Malleson, Nicolas S. (2019) How well does Western environmental theory explain crime in the Arabian context? The case study of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. International Criminal Justice Review, 29(1), pp. 5-32. (doi: 10.1177/1057567717709497)

This list was generated on Sun Jun 15 10:52:47 2025 BST.

Number of items: 65.

Articles

Bullock, S. et al. (2024) Artificial intelligence for collective intelligence: A national-scale research strategy. Knowledge Engineering Review, 39, e10. (doi: 10.1017/S0269888924000110)

Franklin, R. S. et al. (2023) Making space in geographical analysis. Geographical Analysis, 55(2), pp. 325-341. (doi: 10.1111/gean.12325)

An, L. et al. (2021) Challenges, tasks, and opportunities in modeling agent-based complex systems. Ecological Modelling, 457, 109685. (doi: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2021.109685)

Manson, S. et al. (2020) Methodological issues of spatial agent-based models. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 23(1), 3. (doi: 10.18564/jasss.4174)

Book Sections

Edited Books

Edited Journals

Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437, Wang, Mingshu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5260-3143, Demsar, Urska, Lemmens, Rob and Yao, Jing ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8677-8248 (Eds.) (2024) 27th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science “Geographic Information Science for a Sustainable Future”. AGILE: GIScience Series. 5 [Edited Journal]

Research Reports or Papers

Conference Proceedings

Feng, Zixin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7539-9917, Zhao, Qunshan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5549-9457 and Heppenstall, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 (2023) Understanding the Complex Behaviours of Electric Vehicle Drivers with Agent-Based Models in Glasgow. In: 12th International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience 2023), Leeds, UK, 14-19 Sept 2023, 29:1-29:6. ISBN 9783959772884 (doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.GIScience.2023.29)

Website

This list was generated on Sun Jun 15 10:52:47 2025 BST.

Grants

AI for Collective Intelligence (AI4CI) - AI Hub led from the University of Bristol. Funded by EPSRC for 5 years. Start: 01/02/24.

I am leading the Smart Cities theme in conjunction with CASA @UCL.

The AI4CI Hub combines AI expertise with excellence in key application domains in a strongly integrated national consortium of leading UK universities working with dozens of non-academic partners from across government, industry and civil society.

Exascale agent-based modelling for policy evaluation in real-time (ExAMPLER) Funded by EPSRC. 18 months

Exascale computing exploits GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) technology to generate calculation speeds of 1018 floating point operations per second. A laptop does about 109. Agent-based modelling is a form of computer simulation that gained prominence during the Covid crisis to evaluate policy options. However, it is still not typically making use of high-performance computing resources. So, ExAMPLER will:

Explore the state-of-the-art in high-end computing use by the empirical agent-based modelling community;
Benchmark that against other disciplines;
Co-construct visions of future agent-based modelling underpinned by exascale computing;
Develop a roadmap to realize those visions.

The HealthMod Cluster: Enhancing Policy Modelling Capabilities to Tackle the Economic Determinants of Health and Health Inequality Funded by MRC. 5 years commencing April 2024.

HealthMod is a large research programme that brings together scientists, policymakers, and charities interested in using economic policies to improve people's health. We particularly want to improve the health of people who experience disadvantage or discrimination in their lives, as they tend to spend much more of their lives in poor health and also die younger, and the situation has got worse over the past decade.

Within this cluster, I am working on the computational modelling aspect, in particular the synthetic population and dynamic modelling for policy appraisal.

Systems Science in Public Health and Health Economics Research (SIPHER)

SIPHER vision is a shift from health policy to health public policy. Along with Dr Nik Lomax, I am responsible for the data management and micro-modelling work streams of this 5 year UKPRP consortium

Previous projects (within last 3 years)

Behavioural, ecological and socio-economic tools for modelling agricultural policy (BESTMAP - H2020): My role in this project is to devise ways to scale up ABMs from local to national levels.

Consumer Data Research Centre (ESRC):The CDRC seeks to develop new approaches to social science research which are needed to exploit new sources of consumer data. I hold the post of Director of Innovation.

Understanding and Quantifying Uncertainty in Agent-Based Models for Smart City Forecasts: (Turing) Developing methods that can be used to better understand uncertainty in individual-level models of cities

Capturing relationships between individuals: Integrating Causal Inference and Agent-based modelling: (Turing). This project will connect ongoing work in casual inference modelling to agent-based simulations to robustly capture and simulate causal relationships between individuals.

Forecasting the future of policing (Turing): This project is in conjunction with UCL and The Met to explore the potential of ABM as a tool for forecasting demands in policing. The PI is Dr Dan Birks (University of Leeds).

Quantifying Utility and Preserving Privacy in Synthetic Data (QUIPP): This is a joint project with the Turing that is aims to generate synthetic versions of sensitive data sets that contain all the relationships and preserve individual privacy.

Supervision

Feng, Zixin
Exploring the Electric Vehicle Driver Behaviours for the Sustainable Future of Charging Infrastructure
Ponce Hardy, Vicki
Simulating the health impacts of individual policies

Research datasets

Jump to: 2024 | 2023

Number of items: 2.

2024

Lomax, N., Hoehn, A. , Heppenstall, A. , Purshouse, R., Wu, G., Zia, K. and Meier, P. (2024) SIPHER Synthetic Population for Individuals in Great Britain, 2019-2021. [Data Collection]

2023

Boyd, J., Hjelmskog, A. , Elsenbroich, C. , Heppenstall, A. , Toney, J. and Meier, P. (2023) Climate mitigation and adaptation action in the UK and devolved nations - A typology. [Data Collection]

This list was generated on Sun Jun 15 11:44:43 2025 BST.

We use cookies

Necessary cookies

Analytics cookies

Clarity

Professor Alison Heppenstall

Biography

Research interests

Research groups

Publications

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

Articles

Book Sections

Edited Books

Edited Journals

Research Reports or Papers

Conference Proceedings

Website

Grants

Supervision

Research datasets

2024

2023