From analysing how many people are catching trains during lockdown to understanding who is at highest risk from the virus, data is proving invaluable during the pandemic.  Mark Birkin, professor of spatial analysis and policy, University of Leeds, and director of the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA), explains how data sharing and modelling will drive the global recovery from COVID-19. 

A number of social and economic challenges surround our global recovery from COVID-19. These are varied, spanning everything from transportation and civil life to healthcare and education. My work at the moment is about trying to understand particular phenomena in the context of the pandemic.

So, for instance this could mean finding out which people are continuing to use public transport during lockdown and why, and then sharing these insights with policy makers. This could, in turn, affect the reconfiguration of social distancing rules in a railway carriage, bus or transport hub to allow an increased number of passengers to use the service. 

Data analysis and modelling plays a big part in these projects. At the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) we’re working as part of the Emergent Alliance – a not-for-profit community of businesses, public services, and non-government organisations working together to share data and expertise – to help find solutions to these problems. This includes helping shape the strategic direction of the alliance, providing a secure, accredited and independent data-sharing platform and offering data analytics support. 

Informing policy and supporting healthcare 

Data might seem far removed from the real-world implications of the pandemic, but it is playing a key role in helping communities get back on track. 

Having access to a wide range of datasets is incredibly useful for such expansive projects, which is why cross industry collaboration is so important.  In addition to the Emergent Alliance, we’re also part of the UKRI Big DATA Network, so are able to access resources and data within the network to help inform our work.

One of the challenges we’re addressing is how the restoration of travel on the railways will contribute to economic activity in the UK.

We’re building data models to look at passenger flows under various circumstances, taking into account which businesses and services might be open, whether many people will continue to work from home, and whether they might start going out to cinemas and theatres again. From these models, we can approximate the number of people that might make rail journeys in these different situations, meaning we can predict what economic activity might look like. 

Whilst my work focuses on urban analytics, as an institute we have prioritised providing support to the medical response since the beginning of this crisis.

Colleagues with expertise in health analytics  have been working with physicians in our local hospitals, using large databases to identify the risks amongst patients with pre-existing conditions or health vulnerabilities.

LIDA is also a member of the Turing Institute, supporting the national effort to develop artificial intelligence (AI) tools to guide clinical intervention in cases where the evidence is complex and the outcomes are uncertain. 

Maintaining data security 

Of course, when dealing with data the security aspects of collection and use are extremely important. Personally or commercially sensitive data can play an important role in addressing major social and economic challenges, and in these cases, maintaining the privacy of individuals is paramount. 

Within the Emergent Alliance members are asked to make their data available publicly wherever possible, and there has already been a lot of progress in curating data sets and sharing information through an online catalogue developed by Open Data Institute (ODI) Leeds. However, for challenges where there is a need to complement open data with data that is commercially sensitive, we are facilitating these projects through our secure infrastructure.   

Supporting the global community 

There are many different skills that play into each of these projects, and interdisciplinary expertise will be crucial all over the world as we move forward with economic and social regeneration, while managing the associated health risks.

These projects are part of a global effort, involving partners from different countries and industry sectors to provide local indicators of risk and recovery from COVID-19. 

For instance, knowledge of population patterns means that we can analyse job opportunities and business risks at a neighbourhood scale, including the potential to re-skill the workforce, for example using AI, data science or video technology. The resulting models provide the analytics to create indicators of social and economic impact, and to suggest and evaluate what the policy response to power recovery might look like. 

We are facing a situation that is unmatched in living memory, and so the power of data to help model possible outcomes and roads to recovery is of vital importance.

It is the combined effort of global researchers, businesses and governments that will allow us to forge a path towards a renewed economy and society – whatever that might look like.