Dr Joana Barros

Positions held:

Senior Research Fellow, School of Social Sciences

Email

Birkbeck: j.barros@bbk.ac.uk

Overview
Overview

Biography

Joana Barros is an urban planner and geographic information scientist interested in applying geographic information data, tools and technologies to improve the understanding of urban inequalities and promote social justice. While her research has mainly focused on urban issues in Latin American and more particularly Brazilian cities, her research interests also include other cities in the Global South as well as comparative studies with cities in the Global North.
The main themes of her research are: segregation, urban growth and change, informal settlements, and transport. She is committed to applying geospatial data and geotechnologies to improve our understanding of social inequalities in urban space as well as to develop tools that both inform and guide practitioners in the development of urban policies and interventions.

Qualifications
- PhD in Planning Studies, University of London, 2004
- Masters in Urban and Regional Planning, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS, 1999
- Architecture and Urbanism (BSc equivalent), Federal University of Pelotas - UFPel, 1998
Professional memberships
- Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with IBG
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
ORCID
0000-0001-7796-9774
Research
Research

Research interests
- Urban Planning
- Geographic Information Science
- Urban Modelling
- Urban Analytics
- Socio-spatial Inequalities
Research overview

Joana’s areas of expertise lie in urban planning and geographic information science, more specifically spatial analysis and dynamic modelling techniques applied to urban systems.

Her recently completed research project entitled RESOLUTION (Resilient Systems for Land Use and Transportation) looked into the interplay between transport accessibility and socio-spatial inequalities in the metropolitan areas of two megacities, London and São Paulo, and, thus, had a strong comparative focus. The project, funded by ESRC and FAPESP (Brazil) was a collaboration between Birkbeck, the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA, UCL), the University of São Paulo (USP), the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) and the Brazilian National Institute for Spatial Research (INPE).

Together with colleagues from UK (UCL, KCL), Netherlands and China, Joana has been recently awarded funding for the SIMETRI Project - SustaInable Mobility and Equality in mega-ciTy RegIons: patterns, mechanisms and governance, which starts in March 2019. The project is funded by the ESRC in the UK, NWO in the Netherlands and NF in China.

Research Centres and Institutes
- Honorary Senior Research Associate, The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), UCL
Research clusters and groups
- Geo-Analytics and Modelling Group (GAM)
Research projects

SIMETRI: Sustainable Mobility and Equality in mega-city Regions: patterns, mechanisms and governance.

Abstract

The SustaInable Mobility and Equality in Mega-ciTy RegIons (SIMETRI) project seeks to strengthen understanding of the emerging phenomenon of very large urban agglomerations through the development of an innovative platform combining state-of-the-art simulation models, big data from transport and new information technologies. Drawing on research on indicators and predictions undertaken in London (UK) and Randstad (the Netherlands), the project seeks to address spatial segregation, inequality and mobility challenges in the Pearl River Delta Greater Bay Region (China) through the development of a groundbreaking set of tools, indicators and analysis.
This project is being developed in partnership with University College London (UCL) – Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), King’s College London – Geography, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – School of Business and Economics, Shenzhen University – School of Architecture and Urban Planning, The University of Hong Kong – Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation and Sun Yat-sen University – School of Geography and Planning.

Funded by
Economic and Social Research Council

Funding type
JPI Urban

Post doctoral staff
- Dr Nlufer Sari Aslam
Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions external to Birkbeck:

3

Supervisions within Birkbeck:

3

Current doctoral researchers
- ANDREI WONG ESPEJO WONG ESPEJO
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2023 onwards
  
  Title of thesis:
  Social boundaries and production urban inequalities: the spatialization of social classes in Latin America
  
  Description:
  Despite growing focus on the spatial component of urban inequality at the multi-scalar level, we still know very little about the processes that sustain segregation and how they vary across time and geography. In this sense, my research proposal aims to make the following contributions: it takes a comprehensive approach to the understanding of segregation by analysing a much wider array of urban processes (inter-class relations) and scales (at city, neighbourhood and street segments level) over time, allowing for comparisons that are more meaningful; it uses innovative mixed methods by doing quantitative empirical investigation on detecting social boundaries and using qualitative methods to understand differences in the access and use of socially and economically valued resources and, social outcomes of individuals that live close to these identified boundaries. Therefore, this project aims to advance policy solutions that are rooted in peoples’ priorities and local conditions by contributing to the debate on how social divisions are produced and reproduced by urban processes on a day-to-day basis, not only at the neighbourhood level but also by exploring the daily lives of people in different contexts, making sense of how differentiation produces urban inequality using an interdisciplinary and innovative mixed method lens.
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
- COBUS VAN ROOYEN
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Principal Supervisor
  
  Title of thesis:
  Persistent Segregation: Spatial Patterns and Dynamics of Residential Segregation in Cape Town
  
  Awarded:
  2022
- MARCUS PEREIRA SARAIVA
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Principal Supervisor, Oct 2014
  
  Title of thesis:
  Individual Accessibility and Segregation on Activity Spaces: an agent-based modelling approach
  
  Awarded:
  2020
Publications
Publications
Article
- Li, Q.-Q. and Yue, Y. and Gao, Q.-L. and Zhong, C. and Barros, Joana (2022) Towards a new paradigm for segregation measurement in an era of big data. Urban Informatics 1 (5), ISSN 2731-6963.
- Saraiva, M. and Barros, Joana (2022) Accessibility in São Paulo: an individual road to equity?. Applied Geography 144 (102731), ISSN 0143-6228.
- Giannotti, M. and Barros, Joana and Tomasiello, D. and Smith, D. and Pizzol, B. and Santos, B. and Zhong, C. and Shen, Y. and Marques, E. and Batty, M. (2021) Inequalities in transit accessibility: contributions from a comparative study between global south and north metropolitan regions. Cities 109 (103016), ISSN 0264-2751.
- Smith, D.A. and Shen, Y. and Barros, Joana and Zhong, C. and Batty, M. and Giannotti, M. (2020) A compact city for the wealthy? Employment accessibility inequalities between occupational classes in the London metropolitan region 2011. Journal of Transport Geography 86 (102767), ISSN 0966-6923.
- De Araujo, Agnes and Barros, Joana and Queiroz, Alfredo (2018) Segregação urbana: abordagem dos Índices sociais globais e locais. Revista do Departamento de Geografia pp. 1-14. ISSN 2236-2878.
- Barros, Joana and Feitosa, F. (2018) Uneven geographies: exploring the sensitivity of spatial indices of residential segregation. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 45 (6), pp. 1073-1089. ISSN 2399-8083.
- Barros, Joana (2017) Introducing GIS across levels: designing for diversity. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 41 (3), pp. 353-367. ISSN 0309-8265.
- Barreira-González, P. and Barros, Joana (2016) Configuring the neighbourhood effect in irregular cellular automata based models. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 31 (3), pp. 617-636. ISSN 1365-8816.
- Kuffer, M. and Barros, Joana and Sliuzas, R.V. (2014) The development of a morphological unplanned settlement index using very-high-resolution (VHR) imagery. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 48, pp. 138-152. ISSN 0198-9715.
- Willis, I. and Gibin, M. and Barros, Joana and Webber, R. (2014) Applying neighbourhood classification systems to natural hazards: a case study of Mt Vesuvius. Natural Hazards 70 (1), pp. 1-22. ISSN 0921-030X.
- Kuffer, Monika and Barros, Joana (2011) Urban morphology of unplanned settlements: the use of spatial metrics in VHR remotely sensed images. Procedia Environmental Sciences 7, pp. 152-157. ISSN 1878-0296.
- Lizarazo, Ivan and Barros, Joana (2010) Fuzzy image segmentation for urban land-cover classification. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing pp. 151-162. ISSN 0099-1112.
- Batty, M. and Barros, Joana and Alves Jr., S. (2004) Cities: continuity, transformation, and emergence. UCL Working Papers Series 72, pp. 1-17. ISSN 1467-1298.
- Barros, Joana and Sobreira, F. (2002) City of Slums: self-organisation across scales. UCL Working Papers Series 55, pp. 1-10. ISSN 1467-1298.
Book Section
- Feitosa, F. and Barros, Joana and Marques, E. and Giannotti, M. (2021) Measuring changes in residential segregation in São Paulo in the 2000s. In: van Ham, M. and Tammaru, T. and Ubarevičienė, R. and Janssen, H. (eds.) Urban Socio-Economic Segregation and Income Inequality: A Global Perspective. The Urban Book Series. Springer. pp. 507-523. ISBN 9783030645694.
- Smith, D.A. and Barros, Joana (2020) Sustainable transport planning and residential segregation at the city scale. In: Mulley, C. and Nelson, J.D. (eds.) Urban Form and Accessibility: Social, Economic, and Environment Impacts. Elsevier. pp. 27-44. ISBN 9780128198223.
- Fligg, R. and Barros, Joana (2016) A case study of flooding in the Limpopo River Basin, Xai-Xai, Mozambique. In: Lombard, J.R. and Stern, E. and Clarke, G. (eds.) Applied Spatial Modelling and Planning. Routledge Advances in Regional Economics, Science and Policy. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 315-343. ISBN 9781138925700.
- Barros, Joana (2012) Exploring urban dynamics in Latin American cities using an agent-based simulation approach. In: Batty, M. and Heppenstall, A. and Crooks, A. (eds.) Agent-based Models of Geographical Systems. Netherlands: Springer. pp. 571-589. ISBN 9789048189274.
- Barros, Joana and Sobreira, F. (2008) City of slums: self-organisation across scales. In: Minai, A. and Bar-Yam, Y. (eds.) Unifying Themes in Complex Systems IV: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Complex Systems. Berlin, Germany: Springer. pp. 265-273. ISBN 9783540738497.
- Batty, M. and Barros, Joana and Alves Jr., S. (2006) Cities: continuity, transformation and emergence. In: Garnsey, E. and McGlade, J. (eds.) Complexity and Co-Evolution: Continuity and Change in Socio-Economic Systems. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. ISBN 9781845421403.
- Batty, M. and Barros, Joana and Alves Jr., S. (2005) The Dynamics of Cities. In: Bruzzo, A. and Occelli, S. (eds.) Le Relazioni Tra Conoscenza Ed Innovazione Nello Sviluppo Dei Territori. Franco Angeli: Milan, Italy. ISBN 9788846471109.
- Barros, Joana (2004) Simulating urban dynamics in Latin American cities. In: Atkinson, P.M. and Foody, G.M. and Darby, S.E. and Wu, F. (eds.) Geodynamics. New York, USA: CRC Press. ISBN 9780849328374.
- Barros, Joana and Alves Jr., S. (2003) Simulating rapid urbanisation in Latin American cities. In: Longley, P. and Batty, M. (eds.) Advanced Spatial Analysis: The Casa Book of GIS. London, UK: ESRI Press. ISBN 9781589480735.
Conference Item
- Trilla Cisa, D. and Barros, Joana (2021) Ex-ante evaluation of accessibility impacts of Crossrail projects in London. GISRUK 2021, 2021, Cardiff, Wales, UK (Online)
- Havemann, Leo and Charles, Elizabeth and Sherman, S. and Rodgers, Scott and Barros, Joana (2018) From under the radar to under review: digital learning in a ‘face-to-face university’. ALT-C 2018: 25th Annual Conference, 2018, Manchester, UK
- Leal, Joanne and Havemann, Leo and Barros, Joana and Drew, Elizabeth (2016) Transitions: recruit, support, retain. Learning and Teaching Seminars, 2016, London, UK
- Havemann, Leo and Drew, Liz and Barros, Joana and Leal, Joanne (2013) Special blend: developing a model for technology-enhanced, flexible learning. Can We Do It? Yes We Can: HEA/SEEC Conference 2013, 2013, London, UK
- Walker, L. and Barros, Joana (2012) An agent-based population model for Wolverhampton, UK: a spatio-temporal activity based approach to population modelling. GISRUK, 2012, Lancaster University, UK
- de Alba, H. and Barros, Joana (2012) Deforestation in the Kayabi indigenous territory: simulating and predicting land use and land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon. GISRUK, 2012, Lancaster University, UK
- Mitchell, B. and Barros, Joana (2011) Managing Dutch elm disease: an agent-based modelling approach. International Symposium on Spatio-Temporal Analysis and Data Mining, 2011, University College London
- Rains, T. and Barros, Joana (2011) Wayfinding and visitor tracking in museums: accuracy assessments of hybrid positioning services. International Symposium on Spatio-Temporal Analysis and Data Mining, 2011, University College London
- Mitchell, B. and Barros, Joana and Wendel, D. (2010) Identifying Dutch elm disease ‘danger-spots’ on the Isle of Man: an agent-based model approach. GISRUK, 2010, University College London
- Pottage, S. and Barros, Joana and Nixon, J. and Cannell, A. (2010) “The Isolated State”: an ABM approach to the Von Thünen Model. GISRUK, 2010, University College London
- Willis, I. and Barros, Joana and Gibin, Maurizio and Webber, R. (2010) The application of geodemographics to social vulnerability and volcanic hazard assessment. GISRUK, 2010, University College London
- Havemann, Leo and Charles, Elizabeth and Sherman, S. and Rodgers, Scott and Barros, Joana A multitude of modes: considering ‘blended learning’ in context. CDE RIDE conference 2019, London, UK

Dr Joana Barros

Overview

Biography

Qualifications

Professional memberships

ORCID

Research

Research interests

Research overview

Research Centres and Institutes

Research clusters and groups

Research projects

SIMETRI: Sustainable Mobility and Equality in mega-city Regions: patterns, mechanisms and governance.

Post doctoral staff

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Current doctoral researchers

ANDREI WONG ESPEJO WONG ESPEJO

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

COBUS VAN ROOYEN

MARCUS PEREIRA SARAIVA

Publications

Article

Book Section

Conference Item