WEBINAR SERIES
All sessions between 14:00–15:00 hrs (UK time) | 16:00 – 17:00 hrs (SA time)
This webinar series brings together researchers from the Town Observatory* (United Kingdom) and the Gauteng City-Region Observatory** (South Africa) to explore how urban data, digital tools, and storytelling practices can shape contemporary understandings of urban heritage and placemaking. Across three thematic sessions, speakers will share comparative perspectives, emphasising the intersection of data governance, digital innovation, and community narratives in urban observatories. Through this international exchange of knowledge, the series aims to foster dialogue on how cities can be more effectively observed, preserved, interpreted, and represented from local to global levels, while encouraging collaborative pathways for future research and practice.
WEDNESDAY 4 FEBRUARY
GOVERNANCE & URBAN DATA
This session explores the evolving role of governance in shaping urban data practices at the local, regional and global scale, and the influence of data-driven decision-making.
Dr Rob Harland[1] (Reader in Urban Graphic Heritage: TOWN Observatory, United Kingdom) & Dr Taimaz Larimian[2] (Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning: TOWN Observatory, United Kingdom) | Rashid Seedat[3] (Executive Director: Gauteng City-Region Observatory, South Africa) & Shannon Whitaker[4] (Junior Researcher: Gauteng City-Region Observatory, South Africa)
WEDNESDAY 11 FEBRUARY
DASHBOARDS & AI TOOLS
This session examines how emerging technologies are redefining how urban information is gathered, analysed, co-created and communicated.
Dr Firat Batmaz[5] (Postgraduate Programme Leader for Data Science and Computer Science: Loughborough University, United Kingdom) & Dr Sara Saravi[6] (AI in EDI lead for AIED group: Loughborough University, United Kingdom) | Yashena Naidoo[7] (Junior Researcher: Gauteng City-Region Observatory, South Africa) & Dr Laven Naidoo[8] (Senior Researcher: Gauteng City-Region Observatory, South Africa)
WEDNESDAY 18 FEBRUARY
STORYTELLING & COMMUNITY
This session engages the intertwining of storytelling and community-led lived experience to emphasise dialogic exchange, interdisciplinary approaches and inclusive co-production of place-based knowledge.
Prof Mike Wilson[9] (UNESCO Chair in Storytelling Education for Sustainability & Director of the Storytelling Academy: Loughborough University, United Kingdom) & Dr Cristina Goldschmidt-Kiminami[10](Research Associate in Data Visualization for Urban Studies: TOWN Observatory, United Kingdom) | Shamsunisaa Miles-Timotheus[11] (Junior Researcher: Gauteng City-Region Observatory, South Africa) & Thembani Mkhize[12] (Researcher: Gauteng City-Region Observatory, South Africa)
FACILITATOR Dr Yolandi Burger
[1] Dr Robert Harland is a Reader in Urban Graphic Heritage at Loughborough University. His research examines urban heritage through the lens of graphic design, and he has led major projects exploring urban graphic heritage with partners locally, nationally, and internationally. He is a member of Loughborough’s renowned Storytelling Academy and deputy lead for the University’s UNESCO Chair in Storytelling Education for Sustainability. In 2025, he co-founded the TOWN Observatory and was soon after invited to join the UN-Habitat Global Urban Observatory steering committee
[2] Dr Taimaz Larimian is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning at Loughborough University. Her research spans urban social sustainability, participatory planning, and digital urbanism, with selected outputs in Cities, Sustainable Cities and Society, and Environment and Planning B. She leads the award-winning Colouring Britain platform with the Alan Turing Institute, recognised with the RTPI National Award for Excellence in Digital Planning Practice in 2023. She currently leads a £1.1 million DLUHC funded sub-regional observatory and an EPSRC backed digital twin initiative supporting data-informed urban policy. She serves on the RTPI Policy Committee and the UK Government College of Experts, advising on planning and housing policy. Her participatory urban data work now operates in more than 30 countries through the Colouring Cities Research Network.
[3] Rashid Seedat is the Executive Director of the GCRO where he is responsible for strategic management of the organisation. Most of his career has been in public service in the City of Johannesburg as the head of strategy and in the Gauteng Provincial Government where he headed the Planning Division in the Premier’s Office. He has postgraduate qualifications in development planning and public management.
[4] Shannon Whitaker (previously Arnold) is a political scientist with a focus on Southern Africa. In her previous role as an analyst for the International Crisis Group, she concentrated on elections, political violence, and foreign policy issues in South Africa and Zimbabwe. She holds a Master of Science in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding from King’s College London, where she graduated first in her class and received the academic prize for the best dissertation in her department. Additionally, she earned an MPhil in African Studies with distinction from the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State in South Africa.
[5] Dr Firat Batmaz is an academic in the Department of Computer Science at Loughborough University. He leads the Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) Special Interest group, focusing on how AI can enhance teaching and learning. His research interests include technology-enhanced learning and AI systems for student feedback
[6] Dr Sara Saravi is a Computer Science academic at Loughborough University with extensive human–computer interaction experience. She leads Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the department and AI-in-EDI in the AI in Education group. Her work focuses on responsible AI for learning and assessment across higher education. Interests include inclusive design, academic integrity, and human–AI interaction.
[7] Yashena Naidoo is a Junior Researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory and a PhD Fellow in the Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures Doctoral Programme. She specialises in spatial data science, GIS, and remote sensing to analyse socio-economic dynamics within urban environments. Her research focuses on using machine learning and open data to generate predictive insights that support sustainable and informed decision-making.
[8] Dr Laven Naidoo completed his PhD in Geoinformatics at the University of Pretoria in 2017 and specialised in using Earth Observation technologies to monitor savannah, forest and wetland vegetation. His research at the GCRO focuses on developing advanced AI/machine learning techniques, geospatial data science approaches and novel remote sensing applications within the urban environment and Sustainable Development Goals space. He is also a Y-rated scientist by the South African National Research Foundation, an NRF Rating Specialist Committee Member for the Earth Sciences Panel and holds an Extraordinary Lecturer position at the University of Pretoria.
[9] Mike is Director of the Storytelling Academy and holds the first-ever UNESCO Chair in Storytelling Education for Sustainability. His interests lie broadly within the field of popular and vernacular performance and, in particular, on storytelling as a way of creating democratic spaces for public engagement around major societal challenges.
[10] Dr Cristina A. G. Kiminami is a Research Associate in Data Visualisation for Urban Studies at Loughborough University. She is part of a research team and impact activities for ‘The Impact Hub’ (TIH), an interdisciplinary initiative that has established the TOWN Observatory (TO).
[11] Shamsunisaa Miles-Timotheus is a Junior Researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), where she works on the flagship Quality of Life Survey, analysing patterns of well-being across Gauteng. She also leads the GCRO’s “Coloured” Community in Post-Apartheid Gauteng project, a multi-year research initiative exploring the lived experiences, socio-economic conditions, and subjective well-being of the Coloured community in the province.
[12] Thembani Mkhize is a researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) and a doctoral fellow at the Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures (WESAF). Mkhize holds a Master of Science by Research (with distinction) in Sustainable African Futures, obtained from The University of Edinburgh in 2024. His wide research interests include local government, critical toponymy, sexuality studies, urban regeneration, social cohesion, and community participation.
FORMAT: 5 min welcome/context | 4 x (8–10 min) lighting talks | 10 min moderated Q&A |
5 min summarise and close
* The TOWN Observatory launched in 2025 at Loughborough University, in partnership with Charnwood Borough Council in the United Kingdom. It is part of Healthy and Innovative Loughborough project, supported by the UK Government funded Loughborough Town Deal (2023–2026), aimed at creating jobs, supporting new businesses, and making local people healthier. For more information visit: https://town-observatory.lboro.ac.uk/about/
** The Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) is a partnership between the University of Johannesburg (UJ), the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits), the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG), and organised local government in Gauteng (SALGA). Behind the motivation for setting up the GCRO is a vision for South Africa’s economic heartland as a region that is functionally integrated, spatially coherent, competitive, environmentally sustainable, and socially and economically inclusive. GCRO helps to build the knowledge base that government, business, labour, civil society and residents all need to make this vision a reality. GCRO collects data and benchmarks the city-region, provides policy analysis and support, undertakes applied research, and publishes critically reflective academic work. For more information visit: https://www.gcro.ac.za/