Richard is Professor of Urban Planning and GISc at the University of Manchester and Director of the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) 5 year Digital Solutions Programme. This is an £8m investment developing an online hub and set of toolkits that will exploit environmental and other data to create innovative digital services that deliver economic, societal and environmental benefits across the whole of the UK at national, regional, local and neighbourhood scales. He also built this mapping tool https://www.climatejust.org.uk/ which will feature in his presentation.

Richard’s research focuses on the role of ICTs in supporting all forms of spatial and environmental planning and development processes. With a particular focus on developing participatory decision support solutions, the overall aim of his research is to enhance stakeholder involvement and participation in spatial decision making. His research brings together a number of areas of work, including smart cities, Public Participation GIS, planning support systems and spatial analysis.