M.E Geography Masters Research Scholarship 2021

Quantitative analysis, GIS and the interaction of spatial datasets are all fundamental to economic geography and our work at M.E. These are important skills and ones that we consider need to be promoted. It is for this reason that we continue to support the work of Auckland University’s School of Environment through our Masters scholarship.

This years’ winner is Rachel Lawson. She has demonstrated a very high level of academic achievement during her time at Auckland University, with a background in both human and physical geography, earth sciences and environmental sciences. She also impressed us with the active role she has taken at university, including research and teaching assistant roles, student representative and now secretary of the School of Environment Student Association.  It was not surprising that Rachel has also been awarded the University of Auckland Māori Postgraduate Scholarship this year.

Rachel’s recent and current research exemplifies the core interests of M.E. Her 2020 honours dissertation explored human mobility during the 2019 NZ International Convention Centre fire using geospatial simulations of movement and spatial interpolation of air pollution, assessing disruptions to transportation networks, movement corridors and environmental exposure.

Her 2021 Masters thesis (in progress and part funded by our scholarship) builds on these methodologies, analysing changes to mobility during the implementation of strict  government COVID-19 lockdowns in Auckland during 2020. Her research processes raw mobile phone location services data, transforming millions of location data points into usable collective insights using density-based clustering algorithms, semantic enrichment, and mobility metrics. The analysis aims to investigate changes to the distance travelled and reasons for travel, questioning whether COVID-19 has magnified mobility disparities and social inequalities between different Auckland neighbourhoods and deprivation groups.

The research will use visualisations to display changes to movement on a local and regional scale. Rachel expects to see that changes to mobility are not equitable between neighbourhoods and demographic groups, with influencing factors such as the spatial distribution of points of interest defined as essential services during lockdowns, as well as the dispersal and concentration of essential workers who much travel to engage in employment, both impacting movement flows. This research will increase understanding of Aucklanders’ different experiences and responses to movement restrictions and remains relevant in the constantly evolving COVID-19 pandemic.

Already this year Rachel has presented a short methods paper on her research and a talk at an international conference workshop (Advancing Movement Data Science), and competed (and won) the University of Auckland 3 Minute Thesis Competition. We wish her all the best with completing her thesis in the coming months and look forward to seeing her research results.

Image courtesy of the University of Auckland.