Gerardo EzequielSpatial intelligence for cities, home
CV
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Research direction / Developing

What does a digital twin owe the street?

A model should be tested against the place it describes. My evolving research starts with building-stock geometry and solar exposure: which details matter to a result, where uncertainty changes a decision, and what we should observe next.

See a specimen

Research at a glance

PhD affiliation
PhD researcher at UCL's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), The Bartlett.
The question
Researching how reliable spatial evidence must be for decisions about urban heat and buildings.
Methods
Remote sensing, urban morphology, spatial validation, material-flow and stock accounting, research software and critical cartography.
Outputs

Named author of four public Horizon 2020 deliverables (CityLoops D4.4, D7.5 and D7.6; CENTRINNO D2.2).

Listed as a creator of ten open data sheets on Zenodo.

A master's thesis record.

Public code, earlier results unvalidated.

A framework in development, not peer reviewed.

Open the register

Work with me

Co-authoring and review, data and places, tools and code, workshops.

How to write to me

Outputs

  1. Urban Circularity Assessment Method (CityLoops deliverable D4.4)

    Public Horizon 2020 deliverable, grant 821033, version 1.0, 31 May 2022, CC BY 4.0.

    One of four named authors, all at Metabolism of Cities, the deliverable lead (authors listed on PDF page 2 (opens in a new tab)).

    Limit: it estimates urban material flows and building stocks from the evidence available; it does not audit every tonne or survey the materials in each building.

    Cite

    Bellstedt, C., Martín Carreño, G. E., Athanassiadis, A. and Chaudhry, S. (2022) Urban Circularity Assessment Method. CityLoops deliverable D4.4, version 1.0, 31 May 2022. Metabolism of Cities. https://cityloops.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Materials/UCA/CityLoops_WP4_D4.4_Urban_Circularity_Assessment_Method_Metabolism_of_Cities.pdf (opens in a new tab)

  2. Urban Circularity Assessment reports for Apeldoorn (D7.5) and Bodø (D7.6)

    CityLoops deliverables, public, CC BY 4.0, grant 821033.

    One of five named authors on each cover (PDF page 2), with Bellstedt, Athanassiadis, Çelik and Nicoli.

    The covers are dated 31 October 2022 and 28 November 2022; both were deposited on Zenodo on 28 November 2023, and Zenodo prints 2021 for D7.5.

    Limit: the reports state the limits of the data used in each city.

    Cite

    Bellstedt, C., Martín Carreño, G. E., Athanassiadis, A., Çelik, D. and Nicoli, T. (2022) Urban Circularity Assessment Apeldoorn. CityLoops deliverable D7.5, 31 October 2022. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10214181 (opens in a new tab) and (2022) Urban Circularity Assessment Bodø. CityLoops deliverable D7.6, 28 November 2022. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10214198 (opens in a new tab)

  3. Ten open data sheets for the Urban Circularity Assessment (Excel workbooks)

    Apeldoorn 2014 and 2018, Bodø 2015 and 2020, Mikkeli 2015 and 2019, Porto 2009 and 2019, Sevilla 2016 and 2020. Zenodo, CC BY 4.0, grant 821033, deposited on 27 November 2023; the records print publication years 2021 to 2023.

    Listed as a creator, with four others.

    Limit: spreadsheets that apply the method in D4.4; data availability differs between cities.

    DOIs

  4. CENTRINNO Cartography: Alpha Version (deliverable D2.2)

    Public Horizon 2020 deliverable (dissemination level P), grant 869595, submitted 31 January 2022.

    One of six named authors (PDF page 2 (opens in a new tab)); deliverable lead printed as META (Metabolic).

    Limit: it documents the 2021 to 2022 alpha scope; the project website has evolved since.

    Reuse: see the copyright notice on page 3 of the PDF (opens in a new tab).

    Cite

    Ritter, F., Bieckmann, D., Promes, E., Bakousi, K., Yurismona, R. and Martín Carreño, G. E. (2022) CENTRINNO Cartography: Alpha Version. Deliverable D2.2, submitted 31 January 2022, Horizon 2020 grant 869595. https://centrinno.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CENTRINNO_D2.2_CENTRINNO-Cartography-Alpha-Version_v.1.0-1.pdf (opens in a new tab)

  5. Barrios en evolución, de la forma a la función: El caso de las supermanzanas sociales

    (translated by me: Neighbourhoods in evolution, from form to function: the case of social superblocks)

    Master's thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 28 January 2020. Record only; full text restricted by the author's decision. In Spanish.

    Limit: The case documents a research method. It does not establish that Barcelona adopted the model as its final allocation or that it independently improved care outcomes.

    Cite

    Martín Carreño, G. E. (2020) Barrios en evolución, de la forma a la función: El caso de las supermanzanas sociales. Master's thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. https://hdl.handle.net/2117/191790 (opens in a new tab) (supervisors: Mercadé Aloy, J. and Cuchí Burgos, A.)

  6. Shaping Cool Cities

    Urban-heat research across six European study areas (UCL MSc research, continued as public research). Inputs: PMTiles and source manifest generated 7 August 2026, with a stated claim boundary.

    Limit: model validation is being rebuilt after my own re-audit found problems in the temperature target and in how the spatial cross-validation folds were separated; until that work is finished, no model score, explanation or cooling scenario is a validated claim.

  7. The Living Section

    Paper version 3 dated 25 September 2026; this page last revised 20 October 2026. Nine propositions (P1 to P5, and P6 to P9 labelled "v3 candidate" on the page), each with the result that would falsify it; six evidence classes, each drawn as its own line style; a first partial reading of the Lower Lea (section A-A′, dated 25 September 2026 on the drawing). Data: /data/lower-lea-section.json, with a credit, licence and evidence class per layer (EA LIDAR and flood data under OGL v3.0, OpenStreetMap under ODbL, Copernicus Sentinel-2).

    Limit: Working draft, not peer reviewed. No offer has been delivered.

Data and code

Data
Code

The Shaping Cool Cities repository, public under the MIT licence.

Code (earlier results unvalidated) (opens in a new tab)

Work with me

  • Co-authoring and review

    I am a named author of four public Horizon 2020 deliverables. The Living Section's nine propositions each say what would show them wrong; if you can test one, write to me.

  • Data and places

    Bring a place and the evidence you hold. The first Section Scan is planned across the Lower Lea; none has been delivered yet.

  • Tools and code

    I build research software for a defined output: Python pipelines and interactive maps. The six-city heat code is public under the MIT licence; its earlier results are unvalidated.

  • Workshops

    I designed and built the route map, printed companion and mobile contribution tool for a two-hour walking workshop on twenty years of Olympic Park regeneration, delivered collaboratively.

How to write to me

A few lines are enough:

  • The research question
  • The evidence or data you already have
  • How the work will be used
  • Data access, attribution and publication terms, if known
  • Who else is involved, and who would lead
  • Timing, and whether the work is funded
  • Any ethics or data-governance limits

Discuss a research collaboration me@gerardoezequiel.xyz

From building stock to conditions in the street.

Material accounting asks what buildings contain and what flows their construction and use require. Geometry and solar modelling ask what their form makes possible. Heat and fabric introduce further questions about conditions, construction and use. I want to connect these scales while testing each model for the decision it is meant to support.

This is a developing research direction. The earlier street-climate proposal below remains part of that exploration, rather than a completed field study or a settled thesis programme. Read how the preceding work connects.

PhD proposal / August 2026

One place, several layers of evidence.

My layered climate-twin proposal connects urban form, heat, movement and observations in a shared spatial frame. It asks when a model is reliable enough to inform a climate decision.

Concept illustration of one neighbourhood separated into seven layers: urban fabric, heat, people, observations, modelling, evidence and decisions.
AI-generated concept illustration from my August 2026 PhD proposal. It describes a proposed system; it shows no measured heat, deployed sensors or validated results.

Read the layers from the ground upwards.

  1. Urban fabricBuildings, streets, canopy and materials.
  2. Thermal environmentHeat in the street, with weather and radiation.
  3. Human exposureWhere people move, gather and experience heat.
  4. ObservationsWhat was measured, where and when.
  5. Climate intelligenceModels tested against observations and baselines.
  6. Evidence stateProvenance, uncertainty and limits on use.
  7. Climate decisionsWhat the evidence supports and who it affects.

Read the place. Begin with its physical form and people’s journeys.

Test the model. Compare estimates with independent observations.

Support a decision. State what the evidence permits and what we still need to know.

See how I read a building on the home page

The earlier field-observatory proposal

Measure. Ground. Scale. This prototype explores how an interface could connect a climate model with independent observations in the street.

  1. 01 / Measure the radiant environmentThermal walks and six-directional radiometry would provide an independent field reference for conditions experienced at pedestrian height.
  2. 02 / Ground the climate physicsTest the SOLWEIG model against those observations, with explicit uncertainty and failure criteria.
  3. 03 / Scale only what the evidence supportsEvaluate faster models and whether uncertainty can guide the next measurement better than a spatially balanced baseline.

These are proposed research stages. The interactive study uses earlier Barcelona research geometry to explore the interface; it does not display PhD field measurements.

A field observatory

Climate, in three dimensions.

BCN / 01
Barcelona · Static research geometry

Built form · Canopy · Terrain

Start with the city model.

Buildings, terrain and tree canopy form a 3D research model. A foundation for asking how urban form shapes exposure to heat.

A climate digital twin study. Source geometry is sampled; sensor positions illustrate the proposed fieldwork. Explore the research.

Read before you cite: data, method and limits

  • Geometry: a 144 × 144-cell window sampled to 48 × 48 from the original Barcelona building-height, canopy and terrain grids used in my Shaping Cool Cities work. Inspect the source manifest.
  • The 3D view contains 665 sampled building columns and 277 canopy columns. These are rendering elements, not counts of individual buildings or trees.
  • The colour layer is a normalised modelled solar input. It is neither measured air temperature nor a validated ML forecast. Missing solar values remain missing.
  • Sensor positions and connecting lines illustrate a proposed workflow. There is no live sensor feed.
  • The research geometry is simplified for presentation. VoxCity provides the underlying urban modelling toolkit; input-data rights remain separate from its software licence.
Read the preceding research

Next step

Bring a place and a question.

Have a question about urban heat, building stock or spatial evidence? Tell me the question, the place and the evidence you hold.

Discuss a project Discuss a research collaboration

me@gerardoezequiel.xyzContact detailsRead the Academic CV