Professor Silva is a British-Portuguese dual citizen and she has a research track record of 25+ years, both at the public and private sector and specialized in spatial analysis and planning.   Prof.  Silva started working in Cambridge, at the Department of Land Economy, as a University Lecturer - Assistant Professor (2006-2012), was Tenured (2009), Senior Lecturer - Associate Professor (2012-2017), Reader-Professor in Spatial Planning (2017-2020), Full Professor (from October 2020). She was the first Female to be promoted to Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Professor in the Department's history.

Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute : http://www.rtpi.org.uk

Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences : www.acss.org.uk

Editorial Board member:

Computers, Environment and Urban Systems (CEUS)

Planning Theory & Practice 

Sustainable Development

She lectures and is the course coordinator of: in "Urban and Environmental Planning I" (PGR01) and "Spatial Analysis and Modelling"

Prof. Silva research interests are centred on the application of new technologies to spatial planning in particular city and metropolitan dynamic modelling through time. Subject areas include:  Urban Planning, Land Use, Transportation, Spatial Analysis, Data Science & Big Data, Complexity Theory, Smart/Digital Cities, Geographic Information Systems and Planning Support Systems; Space-time dynamic models, Computation and Dynamic Simulation - soft Artificial Intelligence, AI Models (particularly, NN, ABM and CA models). 

Key publications: 

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• 2023 Understanding temporal and spatial patterns of urban activities across demographic groups through geotagged social media data.  (Liu, H. and E.A. Silva) . Computers Environment and Urban Systems. 100 (2023): 101934
• 2022 Infectiousness of places – Impact of multiscale human activity places in the transmission of COVID-19.  (Liu, Lun; Wang, Hui; Zhang, Zhu; Zhang, Weiyi; Zhuang, Shengsheng; Wang, Shenhao; Silva, Elisabete A.; Lv, Tingmiao; Chio, Chi On; Wang, Yifan; Dao, Rina; Tang, Chuchang; Ao-Ieong, On Ieng). Nature (sustainability). npj Urban Sustain 2, 28 (2022).
• 2022 The road to recovery: Sensing public opinion towards reopening measures with social media data in post-lockdown cities (Y. Chen, H. Niu, E.A.Silva) . Cities. 
• 2022 Matching Behavioral Theories and Rules with Research Methods in Spatial Planning-related Fields (R. Kwon and E.A. Silva) 
• 2022 Literature review of accessibility measures and models used in land use and transportation planning in last 5 years (A Marwal and E.A.Silva) Journal of Geographical Sciences 32(3):560-584
• 2022 Modelling and simulating ‘informal urbanization’: An integrated agent-based and cellular automata model of urban residential growth in Ghana. (FSK Agyemang, E A. Silva, S Fox). Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science. 
• 2021 Similar outcomes, different paths: Tracing the relationship between neighborhood-scale built environment and travel behavior using activity-based modelling (L Liu, EA Silva, Z Yang). Cities 110, 103061
• 2021 Delineating urban functional use from points of interest data with neural network embedding: A case study in Greater London (with H. Niu) Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 88, 101651
• 2021 Smart transport: A comparative analysis using the most used indicators in the literature juxtaposed with interventions in English metropolitan areas (Y with Y Chen, EA Silva) Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 10, 100371
• 2021 Measuring policy debate in a regrowing city by sentiment analysis using online media data: A case study of Leipzig 2030 Y Chen, EA Silva, JP Reis. Regional Science Policy & Practice 13 (3), 675-692
• 2020 Crowdsourced Data in Mining Urban Activity: A Review of Data Sources, Applications and Methods. (with H. Niu) Journal of Urban Planning and Development. 146 (2):  04020007
• 2020 Mapping the landscape of behavioral theories: Systematic literature review. HR Kwon, EA Silva. Journal of Planning Literature 35 (2), 161-179
• 2020 Hard and soft data integration in geocomputation: mixed methods for data collection  and processing in urban planning, EA Silva, L Liu, HR Kwon, H Niu, Y Chen. Handbook of Planning Support Science  Ed.. S. Geertman and J. Stillwell. Elgar
• 2020 What’s new in urban data analytics? (chapter 2 ) HN E. A. Silva, H. R.Kwon, L. Liu, Y.Chen Applied Data Analysis for Urban Planning and Management. Ed. A. Rae and C. Wong. Sage 
• 2020 What’s new in urban data analytics? (chapter 2 - with H. R.Kwon, L. Liu, Y.Chen, H.Niu) In: Applied Data Analysis for Urban Planning and Management. Ed. Alasdair Rae and Cecilia Wong. Sage
• 2020 Hard and Soft Data Integration in Geocomputation: Mixed Methods for Data Collection and Processing in Urban Planning (chapter 3 - with L. Liu, H.R. Kwon, H.Niu and Y. Chen). In: Handbook on Planning Support Science. Ed. Stan Geertman & John Stillwell, Edward Elgar Publishers.  ISBN: 978 1 78897 107 2 
• 2019 Block-level changes in the socio-spatial landscape in Beijing: Trends and processes L Liu, EA Silva, Y Long. Urban Studies 56 (6), 1198-1214
• 2019 Simulating the urban growth of a predominantly informal Ghanaian city-region with a cellular automata model: Implications for urban planning and policy. (with F. Agyemang) . Applied Geography. 105: 15-24
• 2019 Nine-nine-six Work System and People's Movement Patterns: Using Big Data Sets to Analyse Overtime Working in Shanghai. (with C. Xiao, C. Zhang) Land Use Policy. 90:1043040

• 2019 Understanding the urban spatial structure of Sub-Saharan African cities using the case of urban development patterns of a Ghanaian city-region (with Mr. Felix Agyemang and Dr. Michael Poku-Boansi). Habitat International. 85:21-33

• 2019 Pavement degradation: a city-scale model for San Francisco. (with Bingyu Zhao and Kenichi Soga). Smart Infrastructure and Construction. 171 (3): 93-109. 

• 2018 An Integrated Spatial Analysis Computer Environment for Urban-Building Energy in Cities, (with Yu Sun, Elisabete A Silva, Wei Tian, Ruchi Choudhary and Hong Leng). Sustainability. 10(11): 4235.
• 2018 A decade of battle against PM2.5 in Beijing.  (with L Liu, EA Silva, J Liu) Urban Studies. online first, https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X18766633
• 2018 Towards sustainable urban development: the social acceptability of high-rise buildings in a Ghanaian city (with F. Agyemang and P. Anokye) GeoJournal . 83: 1317–1329
• 2017 The emergence of city-regions and their implications for contemporary spatial governance: Evidence from Ghana(with F. Agyemang and K. Amedzhoro), Cities, 71: 70-79
• 2017 A machine learning-based method for the large-scale evaluation of the qualities of the urban environment (L Liu, C. Wu, H.  Wang) CEUS, 65: 113-125
• 2017 Examining the dynamics of the interaction between the development of creative industries and urban spatial structure by agent-based modelling (with Qian Wang and Helin Liu). Urban Studies. 65: 113-125

• 2017 Newspaper representation and power relations in infrastructure projects: a case study of Hong Kong's Express Rail Link (with Ada Lee) International Planning Studies (IPS) 22 (3): 256-272

• 2017 Business Model Innovation for Sustainability: Towards a Unified Perspective for Creation of Sustainable Business Models. (with: Steve Evans, Q1 1 Doroteya Vladimirova,1* Maria Holgado,1 Kirsten Van Fossen,1 Miying Yang,1 Elisabete A. Silva2 and Claire Y. Barlow1).  Business Strategy and the Environment. Bus. Strat. Env. 26 (5): 597-608
• BOOK 2017 - Comprehensive Geographic Information Systems. Vol. 3: GIS Applications for Socio-Economics and Humanity, Elsevier. Main Editor Bo Huang, Volume 3 Editors: Kai Cao and Elisabete A. Silva (2016:chapters online/Hardcover:2017). ISBN: 978-0-12-804660-9.

• 2016 Incorporating GIS data into an agent-based model to support planning policy making for the development of creative industries (with Helin Liu and Qian Wang). Journal of Geographical Systems (JGSY). 18(3), 205-228  DOI: 10.1007/s10109-016-0229-7

• 2016 Spatial Metrics to Study Urban Patterns in Growing and Shrinking Cities. (with J. Reis). Urban Geography. 37 (2): 246-271t. Doi. 10.1080/02723638.2015.1096118 - OA-4011. ISSN: 0272-3638

• 2017 An agent-based model of global carbon mitigation through bilateral negotiation under economic constraints: the key role of stakeholders’ feedback and facilitated focus groups and meetings in the development of behavioural models of decision making. Douglas Crawford-Brown, Helin Liu, Elisabete A. Silva. Comprehensive Geographic Information Systems: ISBN is 978-0-12-804660-9.

• 2017  A Scalable Agent Based Multi-modal Modeling Framework Using Real-Time Big-Data Sources for Cities G Casey, K Soga, E Silva, P Guthrie, K Kumar  - Transportation Research Board 96th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board – issue: 17-05941: 18 pags

• 2016, 2017 - GIS-based approach to analyse the spatial opportunities for knowledge-intensive businesses Mei Lin Yeo, Saad Saleem Bhatti, Elisabete A Silva Comprehensive Geographic Information Systems: ISBN is 978-0-12-804660-9.

• 2016, 2017  Spatial metrics - The static and dynamic perspectives Saad Saleem Bhatti, José Pedro Reis and Elisabete A. Silva. . Comprehensive Geographic Information Systems: ISBN is 978-0-12-804660-9.

• 2016 Simulating the degradation and maintenance effects on an integrated urban transport infrastructure system. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart Infrastrctuture and Construction (Ed. RJ Mair, K soga, Y. jin, AK Parlikad and JM Schooling) pp.609-614. ICE Publishing, London.  ISBN 978-0-7277-6127-9.

• 2016 Understanding traveller decision making - a crowd sourcd big data analysis of the London Travel Demand Survey (G. Casey, K. Soga, E. Silva nd P. Guthrie). In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart Infrastrctuture and Construction. (Ed. RJ Mair, K soga, Y. jin, AK Parlikad and JM Schooling) pp. 741-746. ICE Publishing, London.  ISBN 978-0-7277-6127-9.

• BOOK 2015 Creative Industries and Urban Spatial Structures. (with Helin Liu and Qian Wang) Springer. 220 pages. ISBN 978-3-319-16610-0

• BOOK 2015 Developing and inventory and typology of Land-Use Planning Systems and Policy Instruments in OECD Countries (with Ransford Acheapong) OECD, DOI.: JT03374599   ENV/EPOC/WPIEEP (2015)8: 54 pages

• 2015 Land Use-Transport Interaction Modelling: A Review of the Literature and Future Research Directions. (with R. Acheapong). Journal of Transport and Land U se. Vol 8 (3): 1-28 pp.   OA-2014-OA 2840 . ISSN: 1938-7849

• 2015 Comparative Study on Machine Learning Methods for Urban Building Energy Analysis. (together with Lai Wei, Wei Tian, Elisabete Silva , QingXin Meng, and Song Yang and Ruchi Chaowdrie).  Procedia Engineering, 121 (2015): 285-292 pp OA 4221 -  ISSN: 1877-7058

• 2015 Creative industries urban model: structure and functioning.(With H. Liu)  Urban Design and Planning. (2014 - OA-1398) 168 ( DP2): 88-100
• 2015 Research Excellence: citing, being cited and the H Index. Urban Design and Planning.  (OA-4012), 168 (3): 113- 114
• BOOK 2014 The Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods.  (with Patsy Healey, Neil Harris and Pieter van den Broeck), Routledge. 658 pages. ISBN:9781138216570. *Best seller 2015 Routledge/Taylor and Francis planning book* >>>>> now published in China in Mandarin:  https://www.amazon.com/x89C4-x5212-x7814-x7A76-x65B9/dp/7112185157
• 2014 Measuring space: a review of spatial metrics for urban growth and shrinkage (with J. Reis). In: The Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods. (Eds. Elisabete A. Silva, Patsy Healey, Neil Harris and Pieter van den Broeck), Routlege
• 2014 Quantitative methods in Planning. In:The Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods. (Eds. Patsy Healey, Neil Harris and Pieter Van den Broeck), Routlege
• 2014 Research Inquiry in the spatial planning field (with Patsy Healey, Heil Harris, Pieter Van den Broeck). In: The Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods. (Eds. Elisabete A. Silva, Patsy Healey, Neil Harris and Pieter van den Broeck), Routledge
• 2014 The life-changing transitions of a research/academic career. In: The Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods. (Eds.Elisabete A. Silva, Patsy Healey, Neil Harris and Pieter Van den Broeck), Routledge
• 2014 DG-ABC: An Integrated multi-agent and cellular automata urban growth model (with N. Wu). Technologies in Urban and Spatial Planning: Virtual Cities and Territories?  (Eds. Nuno Norte Pinto, José António Tenedório, António Pais Antunes and Josep Roca ), IGI-Global, pp.57-92
• 2013 Simulating the dynamics between the development of creative industries and urban spatial structure: an agent-based model (with H. Liu). S. Geertman et al. (eds.), Planning Support Systems for Sustainable Urban Development, Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-37533-0_4, _ Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg,  pp. 51-72
• 2013 Editorial: Hot topics in planning. Urban Design and Planning 166(3):149-150

• 2013 Simulating the dynamics between the development of creative industries and urban spatial structure: an agent-based model (with H. Liu). S. Geertman et al. (eds.), Planning Support Systems for Sustainable Urban Development, Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-37533-0_4,  Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg  pp. 51-72
• 2013 Selecting artificial intelligence urban models using waves of complexity. (with N. Wu). Urban Design and Planning. 166 (1): 76 –90
• 2013 Geographic Information in Information and Communication Technologies. Urban Design and Planning. 166 (1): 1-2
• 2012 Surveying Models in Urban Land Studies. (with N. Wu) Journal of Planning Literature.27 ( ): 1-14
• 2012 Land Reform and Regional Planning: a proposal state-market. (with S. Souza)  IPEA-Journal of Planning and Public Policy, 38, (June): 25.
• 2011 Data, models and land planning – Europe’s data-led policy. Journal of Urban Design and Planning. 164(4): 195-196
• 2011 Li Xiaopeng, Elisabete A.Sliva, Fu Shuaixiong, An application of the hedonic price model: the case of Beijing (in Chinese), China Market, 2011(10), pp. 58-63
• 2011 Planning land reform on a regional scale: a case study from Brazil. (with S. Souza)  Planning Theory and Practice, 12(4): 246-265. ISSN: 0885-4122
• 2011 Regional Planning in the Land Reform Literature. perspectives of seemingly opposing land reform views: a gap to be bridged.  (with S. Souza)   Regional Studies. 45, (6): 857-868 ISSN: 1360-0591.
• 2011 Cellular Automata Models and Agent Base Models for urban studies: from pixels, to cells, to Hexa-Dpi’s. In: Urban Remote Sensing: Monitoring, Synthesis and Modeling in the Urban Environment. Edited by: Dr. XiaojunYang. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 323-345. ISBN: 978-0-470-74958-6
• 2010 A Planner’s Encounter with Complexity, (with G. de Roo) Ashgate Publishers Ltd, Aldershot (UK). 337 pages. ISBN: 978-1-4094-0265-7.  http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409402657 
• 2010 Waves of complexity. Theory, models, and practice. In: Roo, Gert de, and Elisabete A. Silva (2010), A Planner’s Encounter with Complexity, Ashgate Publishers Ltd, Aldershot (UK).  pp. 309-331.. ISBN: 978-1-4094-0265-7
• 2010 Artificial intelligence solutions for Urban Land Dynamics: A Review (with N. Wu). Journal of Planning Literature. 2010 24: 246-265.
• 2010 Complexity and CA, and application to metropolitan areas.  In: Roo, Gert de, and Elisabete A. Silva (2010), A Planner’s Encounter with Complexity, Ashgate Publishers Ltd, Aldershot (UK).  pp..187-207. ISBN: 978-1-4094-0265-7
• BOOK 2009 Urban revitalization in traditional neighbourhoods in Chinese cities. (with N. Wu and N. Song)  RICS, London. 54 pages. ISBN: 978-1-84219-535-2
• 2009 A Traffic Analysis Zone Definition: A New Methodology and Algorithm. (with LM Martinez and JM Viegas).  Transportation. 36 (5): 6
• 2009 Effects of the modifiable areal unit problem on the delineation of traffic analysis zones. (with LM Martinez and JM Viegas) Environment and Planning B – Planning and Design. 36(4): 625-643
• 2009 Artificial Intelligence and ‘waves of complexity’ for urban dynamics. (with N. Wu) In: WSEAS. Recent Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Engineering and Databases. Artificial Intelligence Series. WSEAS Press. pp. 459-469 . ISBN:978-960-474-051-2
• 2008 Strategies for Landscape Ecology in Metropolitan Planning: Applications Using Cellular Automata Models. (with J. Wileden, J. and J. Ahern), Progress in Planning, 70(4):133-177 - ISSN: 0305-9006
• 2007 Zoning Decisions in Transport Planning and their Impact on the Precision of Results. (with LM Martinez and JM Viegas)Transportation Research Record, 1994 (08):  58-65 - ISSN: 0361-1981
• 2006 Transportation and the Portuguese development during the past 30 years (In Portuguese - Sociedade e Território), Society and Territory, 40: 52-62 - ISSN: 36316/90
• 2005 Modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) effects on traffic analysis zones (TAZ) delineation (with L.  Martinez and J. Viegas). Modelling and Simulation. 313-323
• 2005 Complexity, Emergence and Cellular Urban Models: Lessons Learned from Appling SLEUTH to two Portuguese Metropolitan Areas. (with  K. Clarke) European Planning Studies, 13 (1): 93-115 – ISSN: 0965-4313
• 2004 A methodological approach in order to support decision makers when defining Mobility and Transportation Politics [bilingual version, Estudos Regionais), (with M. Gaspar and J. Viegas), Portuguese Journal of Regional Studies , 6: 109-127 – ISSN: 1645-586X
• 2004 Full Paper: Scenarios of Urban Expansion in the Porto Metropolitan Area. Urbanism Review (Revista Urbanismo), 5: 19-29 – ISSN 0874-937X
• 2004 The DNA of our Regions: artificial intelligence in regional planning. Futures, 36(10):1077-1094. – ISSN: 0016-3287
• 2003 The CVCA Model: A Cellular Automaton Model of Landscape Ecological Strategies. European Simulation and Modelling Society - ESM 2003 (with J. Wileden and J. Ahern ),.  pp. 206-209. ISBN: 90-77381-04-X
• 2003 1st Conference of the Land Management Engineering: Plan-Change-Manage (With J. Ferreira, JB e Silva, E.A. Silva and  J. M. Esteves) (in Portuguese) . Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) & Núcleo de Estudos dos alunos de Território (NET), Lisboa. 43 pages ISBN: 972-8152-76-0
• 2002 Calibration of the SLEUTH Urban Growth Model for Lisbon and Porto, Portugal.  (with K. Clarke) Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 26 (6): 525-552  - ISSN: 0198-9715
• 2002 Are the Regional and the Local Foregathering? Widening the Gap between the New Regionalists and the Community Builders. European Planning Studies, 10 (4):529-535 - ISSN: 0965-4313
• 2002 Indecision Factors when planning for land use change. European Planning Studies, 10 (3): 335-358 - ISSN: 0965-4313
• 2002 Scenarios of Urban Growth in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Journal of Regional Studies (In Portuguese: Revista de Estudos Regionais), 5: 23-41 - ISSN 0874-8675
• BOOK 2002 Beyond Modelling in Environmental and Urban Planning. Planning Support Systems and the case study of Lisbon and Porto Metropolitan Areas, Portugal. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. 293 pages. [The Library of Congress, United States Copyright Office] ISBN: TX 5–644-304
• 2001 The Geographic Factor in the Development of small internet applications of biodiversity (in Portuguese). VII Conferência Nacional sobre a Qualidade do Ambiente, Universidade de Aveiro. Universidade de Aveiro-DAO, Aveiro, pp. 496-511. ISBN: 972-789-026-1
• 2001 Environmental and Urban Models. The planning of different scenarios for two Metropolitan Areas. (Landskabsokologiske Skrifter nr. 16) Landscape Ecological Papers, 16: 49-56 –– ISSN: 1395-3710
• BOOK 1999 The structuring effects of the transportation infrastructures in the land use change (in Portuguese) , Patrimónia (Ed.), Lisboa. 188 pages ISBN: 972-744-038-X
• 1997 Municipal Master Plans for the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) A Regional Approach (with J. Machado), In: Environmental Challenges in an Expanding Urban World and the Role of Emerging Information Technologies, João Reis Machado & Jack Ahern (Editors), National Centre for Geographic Information, Lisbon, pp. 291-302. ISBN: 972-97406-0-7
• 1997 Greenways Network for the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (with J. Machado), In: Environmental Challenges in an Expanding Urban World and the Role of Emerging Information Technologies, João Reis Machado & Jack Ahern (Editors), National Centre for Geographic Information, Lisbon, pp. 281-29. ISBN: 972-97406-0-7

Mr. Stephen Ajadi, Ms. Ica Fernandez, Ms Ana Paula Seraphim, Mr. Aviral Marwal

Urban planning, complexity theory, spatial analysis, smart cities, big data, urban models

LISA lab