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Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data


Summary

The Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD) is a national, interdisciplinary, social science research institute. It is a collaborative venture between the universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, South Wales and Swansea.

Using innovative approaches, WISERD’s research spans the fields of economics, sociology, geography and political science. It currently hosts an ESRC-funded Civil Society Centre exploring changing perspectives on civic stratification and civil repair.

WISERD’s training and capacity building programme includes training in a range of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods techniques for researchers in the academic, policy, public and practice sectors in Wales. WISERD has strong links with civil society organisations and is committed to building research capacity within the third sector.


Contact


Senior fellow


Research interests

  • Spatial Analysis and Geographical Information Science
  • Spatial and social inequalities
  • Rural service provision
  • Accessibility modelling
  • Applications of GIS in health geography
  • GIS and visualisation techniques in emergency planning
  • Patterns of environmental (in)justice
  • Socio-economic geography of Wales.

Selected publications

  • Incze, E., Holborn, P., Higgs, G. and Ware, A. (2020) ‘Using machine learning tools to investigate factors associated with trends in ‘no-shows’ in outpatient appointments’, Health and Place, 67. DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102496
  • Higgs, G., Page, N. and Langford, M. (2020) ‘Exploring the relationship between local volunteering opportunities and the propensity to volunteer using a nationally representative survey of adults in Wales’, Journal of Civil Society, 17(2), 101-118. DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2021.1923903
  • Langford, M., Higgs, G. and Jones, S. (2021) ‘Understanding spatial variations in accessibility to banks using variable floating catchment area techniques’, Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 14(3), 449–472. DOI: 10.1007/s12061-020-09347-2
  • Price, A., Langford, M. and Higgs, G. (2021). ‘Computing geographical access to services: the design of a client-server solution that incorporates multiple transport modes’, Transactions in GIS, 25(4), 1849–1867. DOI: 10.1111/tgis.12744
  • Page, N., Langford, M. and Higgs, G. (2020) Exploring spatiotemporal variations in public library provision following a prolonged period of economic austerity: a GIS approach’, Area, 52, 342–353. DOI: 10.1111/area.12575
  • Langford, M., Higgs, G., and Dallimore, D. (2019) Investigating spatial variations in access to childcare provision using network-based GIS models, Social Policy & Administration, 53(5), 661-677. DOI: 10.1111/spol.12419
  • Higgs, G, Langford, M., Jarvis, P., Page, N., Richards, J. and Fry, R. (2019) Using GIS to investigate variations in accessibility to ‘extended hours’ primary health care provision, Health and Social Care in the Community, 27(4), 1074-1084. DOI: 10.1111/hsc.12724
  • Page, N., Langford, M. and Higgs, G. (2019) Measuring spatial accessibility to services within Indices of Multiple Deprivation: Implications of applying an Enhanced two-step Floating Catchment Area (E2SFCA) approach, Journal of Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 12(2), 321-348. DOI: 10.1007/s12061-017-9246-2
  • Page, N., Higgs, G. and Langford, M. (2018) An exploratory analysis of spatial variations in organ donation registration rates in the five years prior to implementation of the Human Transplantation (Wales) Act 2013, Health and Place, 52, 18-24. DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2018.05.002
  • Page, N., Langford, M. and Higgs, G. (2018) An evaluation of alternative measures of accessibility for investigating potential ‘deprivation amplification’ in service provision, Applied Geography, 95, 19-33. DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2018.04.003
  • Higgs, G., Jones, S., Langford, M. and Heley, J (2018) Assessing the Impacts of Changing Public Service Provision on Geographical Accessibility: an examination of public library provision in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 36(3), 548–568. DOI: 10.1177/2399654417715457
  • Langford, M., Higgs, G. and Radcliffe, J. (2018) The application of network-based GIS tools to investigate spatial variations in the provision of sporting facilities, Annals of Leisure Research, 21(2), 178-198. DOI: 10.1080/11745398.2016.1272059
  • Higgs, G., Zahnow, R., Corcoran, J., Langford, M. and Fry, R. (2017) Modelling spatial access to General Practitioner surgeries: Does public transport availability matter? Journal of Transport and Health, 6, 143-154. DOI: 10.1016/j.jth.2017.05.361
  • Frew, R., Higgs, G., Harding, J. and Langford, M. (2017) Investigating geospatial data usability from a health geography perspective using sensitivity analysis: the example of potential accessibility to primary healthcare, Journal of Transport and Health, 6, 128-142. DOI: 10.1016/j.jth.2017.03.013
  • Langford, M., Higgs, G. and Fry, R. (2016) Multi-modal Two-Step Floating Catchment Area Analysis of Primary Health Care Accessibility, Health and Place, 38, 70-81. DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.11.007