|Talks|

Urban Mobility, Inequality, and Environmental Justice: Insights from Big Data

Visiting speaker
In-person
Past Talk
Ryan Qi Wang
Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University
Thu, Mar 20, 2025
5:00 PM UTC
Thu, Mar 20, 2025
5:00 PM UTC
In-person
4 Thomas More St
London E1W 1YW, UK
The Roux Institute
Room
100 Fore Street
Portland, ME 04101
Network Science Institute
2nd floor
Network Science Institute
11th floor
177 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Room
58 St Katharine's Way
London E1W 1LP, UK

Talk recording

Cities today face mounting challenges, from large-scale crises and climate change to the needs of aging populations. These forces profoundly shape human mobility, influencing how people move, interact, and access essential services. This talk examines the complex interplay between urban mobility, environmental justice, and social inequality, leveraging research on mobility data, air quality exposure, and accessibility disparities. Through case studies such as the BostonWalks study, we explore how movement patterns contribute to unequal pollution exposure, disparities in service access, and resilience to external shocks like COVID-19 and extreme weather events. By integrating mobility analytics with environmental and demographic data, we reveal structural inequities in urban spaces, highlighting how marginalized communities often bear a disproportionate burden. This discussion will showcase key findings on mobility rhythms, environmental disparities, and aging populations' access to critical services, providing a data-driven lens to understand and address urban inequality.

About the speaker
Ryan Qi Wang is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University. Before joining Northeastern, Wang was a postdoc fellow at the Department of Sociology, Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. His research focuses on two interrelated areas: human movement perturbation under the influence of natural and manmade disasters, and mobility equality in big cities. His research has been published in Nature Human Behavior, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), etc. His research group has received funding support from NSF, NIST, IARPA, MacArthur Foundation, USDOT, and other foundations and local government agencies.
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Mar 20, 2025