Elizabeth Delmelle

Related People
Wenwu Tang
Harrison Campbell

Teaching and Research Interests

  • Urban and Neighborhood Dynamics
  • Urban Transportation
  • Spatial Analysis and Modeling
  • Geographic Information Science
  • GeoComputation

Education

  • Ph.D. (2012) Geography & Urban Regional Analysis, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • M.A. (2006) Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo
  • B.S. (2004) Geographic Science, James Madison University

Profile

My research interests lie within two general fields of application: urban and neighborhood dynamics and urban transportation. My work on neighborhood dynamics has sought to understand how and why neighborhoods change according to their multidimensional quality of life or socioeconomic complexion. This research has employed a variety of statistical and computational techniques to understand space-time-multidimesional patterns of change and to disentangle the drivers of change including: self-organizing maps, sequential pattern mining, and structural equation modeling. I continue to be driven by the pursuit of novel methodological techniques that can deepen our understanding of neighborhood dynamics.

On the transportation side, I have worked in the area of bicycle and pedestrian safety, performing spatial analyses of bicycle crash locations and compared neighborhood-level risk factors between bicyclists and pedestrians. I am also interested in spatial accessibility, equity, and social exclusion as it relates to public transport. Currently, I am involved in several research projects that examine the social and economic consequences (and opportunities) of new public rail transit investments, including an NSF-funded project on residential mobility and the probability of transit-induced displacement.

I am the former chair of the Transportation Geography Specialty group of the AAG and currently serve as Associate Editor for the Journal of Transport Geography.

Geographic Information tools and spatial analytical/statistical methods form the core of my research methodological approach. The courses I teach are along these lines including: Spatial Thinking, Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems, Spatial Modeling for Social and Economic Applications, and Spatial Database Development. Here is a sneak peak at a balloon mapping exercise in the Spatial Thinking course: http://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2017-08-02/thinking-spatially-%E2%80%93-balloon-exercise-helps-students-perceive-timespace

Some CityLab coverage of my articles:

  1. Mapping neighborhood change in Chicago and LA (Annals of AAG): The city of Chicago has put the results of that analysis in            action! https://www.chicagocityscape.com/maps/investmentzones.php
  2. A New Typology of American Neighborhoods (Environment & Planning A, 2017).
  3. Urban neighborhoods, once distinct by race and class are blurring (Urban Science, 2019).

London School of Economics US Policy Blog summary of recent research

Some press on my work with collaborators in Austria that looks at the relationship between social satisfaction, commuting, and the urban environment: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-the-neighborhood/201403/how-your-commute-can-damage-your-relationships

Does transit cause displacement? Its complicated.

If you are a hard-working and creative graduate student interested in any of these things, please email me, I’d love to discuss potential opportunities.

Besides working, I enjoy running, reading, chasing around my children and husband, and getting the elusive full night’s sleep.