Curriculum Vitae - Jane Law

Jane Law
BSc. MSc. PhD, MRICS, MHKIS
Associate Professor
School of Planning
School of Public Health and Health Systems
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Email: j9law@uwaterloo.ca

Degrees

Employment History

Research and Scholarship

Areas of interest

GIS and Spatial Analysis Methodologies and their Applications in Public Health and Crime Research; Spatial Demography; Spatial Statistics; Bayesian Spatial and Spatio-temporal Analysis; Hierarchical (Multilevel) Spatial Modeling; Spatial Epidemiology; Environmental Criminology; Healthy communities and the Built Environment; Neighbourhood/Community Effect; Geomatics, Land Information Systems; Health Planning; Law Enforcement Planning.

Articles in peer-reviewed journals (* denotes student co-authors)

• Law, J. (2016). “Exploring the Specifications of Spatial Adjacencies and Weights in Bayesian Spatial Modeling with Intrinsic Conditional Autoregressive Priors in a Small-area Study of Fall Injuries” AIMS Public Health, Special issue: Spatial Aspects of Health Methods and Applications, 3(1): 65-82. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2016.1.65.
• Quick, M*, Law, J. and Luan, H.* (2016). “The influence of on-premise and off-premise alcohol outlets on reported violent crime in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario: Applying Bayesian spatial modeling to inform land use planning and policy”, Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy (in press).
• Law, J., M. Quick*, and P.W. Chan (2015). “Open area and road density as land use indicators of young offender residential locations at the small-area level: A case study in Ontario, Canada” Urban Studies, DOI: 10.1177/0042098015576316
• Luan H.*, Law, J., and Quick, M.* (2015) “Identifying food deserts and swamps based on relative healthy food access: a spatio-temporal Bayesian approach” International Journal of Health Geographies, DOI: 10.1186/s12942-015-0030-8
• Quick, M.*, J. Law, Christidis, T., and Paller, C.* (2015). “Exploring the socioeconomic composition of wind farm communities in Ontario: Implications for wind farm planning and policy”, Canadian Journal of Urban Research (in press)
• Law, J., M. Quick*, and P.W. Chan (2015). “Analyzing Hotspots of Crime Using a Bayesian Spatiotemporal Modeling Approach: A Case Study of Violent Crime in the Greater Toronto Area” Geographical Analysis, 1-19, DOI: 10.1111/gean.12047, 47: 1-19
• Luan, H.*, and Law, J. (2014). “Web GIS-Based Public Health Surveillance Systems: A Systematic Review” ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, Vol. 3, 481-506, DOI 10.3390/ijgi3020481
• Law, J., M. Quick*, and P.W. Chan (2014). “Analyzing local patterns of crime over time at the small-area level: A Bayesian spatio-temporal modeling approach” Journal of Quantitative Criminology, DOI 10.1007/s10940-013-9194-1, Vol. 30: 57-78
• Christidis, T.* and J. Law (2013), “Mapping Ontario’s wind turbines: challenges and limitations” ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 2(4), 1092-1105, DOI 10.3390/ijgi2041092.
• Law, J., and M. Quick* (2013), “Exploring links between juvenile offenders and social disorganisation at a large map scale: a Bayesian spatial modeling approach” Journal of Geographical Systems” Vol. 15:1, 89-113, DOI: 10.1007/s10109-012-0164-1s, Vol. 15: 89-113
• Quick, M.* and J. Law (2013) “Exploring hotspots of drug offences in Toronto, Ontario: a comparison of four local spatial cluster detection methods”, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Vol. 55:2, 215-238.
• Law, J. and P. Chan (2012).“Bayesian spatial random effect modeling for analyzing burglary risks controlling for offender, socioeconomic, and unknown risk factors.”Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, Vol. 5, 73-96, DOI: 10.1007/s12061-011-9060-1.
• Christidis, T.* and J. Law (2012) “Annoyance, health effects, and wind turbines: exploring Ontario’s planning process”, Canadian Journal of Urban Research, Vol. 21:1 Supplement, 81-105.
• Christidis, T.*, and J. Law (2012), “The use of GIS in wind turbine and wind energy research”, Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 4 (1), 127011-9; DOI: 10.1063/1.3673565.
• Law, J. and P. Chan (2012).“Monitoring residual spatial pattern using Bayesian hierarchical spatial modelling for exploring unknown risk factors.” Transactions in GIS, Vol. 15 (4): 521-549.
• Chan, W.*, J. Law, and P. Seliske (2011) “Bayesian spatial methods for small-area injury analysis: a study of geographic variation of falls in older people in the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Region in Ontario, Canada” Injury Prevention, 18(5), 303-308; DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2100-040068.
• Meng, G.*, J. Law, and M. Thompson (2010). “Small-scale health-related indicator acquisition using secondary data spatial interpolation.”International Journal of Health Geographics 2010, 9:50 (13 October 2010).
• Haining, R., G. Li, R. Maheswaran, Blangiardo, M., J. Law, N. Best, and S. Richardson (2010).“Inference from ecological models: estimating the relative risk of stroke from air pollution exposure using small area data.”Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology, 1:123-131.
• Haining,R., J. Law, and D. Griffith (2009). “Modelling small area counts in the presence of overdispersion and spatial autocorrelation.” Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, 53: 2923-2937.
• Law, J. (2009).Book review: “Lawson, A.B. Bayesian Disease Mapping: HierarchicalModeling in Spatial Epidemiology. CRC 2008.” Biometrics Vol. 65, 661-662.
• Haining, R.P and J. Law (2007). “Combining police perceptions with police records of serious crime areas: a modelling approach.”  Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, Vol. 170: 4, 1019-1034.
• Haining, R.P, J. Law, Maheswaran, R., T. Pearson, and P. Brindley (2007).  “Bayesian modelling of environmental risk: a small area ecological study of coronary heart disease mortality in relation to modelled outdoor nitrogen oxide levels.”  Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment Vol. 21, No. 5, 501-509.
• Law, J., R. P. Haining, R. Maheswaran, and T. Pearson (2006). "Analysing the relationship between smoking and coronary heart disease at the small area level: A Bayesian approach to spatial modelling." Geographical Analysis 38:2 140-159.
• Maheswaran, R., R. P. Haining, T. Pearson, J. Law, P. Brindley, and N. G. Best (2006). "Outdoor NO_x and stroke mortality: Adjusting for small area level smoking prevalence using a Bayesian approach." Statistical Methods for Medical Research 15, 499-516.
• Maheswaran, R., R. P. Haining, P. Brindley, , T. Pearson, P. R. Fryers, S. Wise, and M. J. Campbell (2005). "Outdoor air pollution and stroke in Sheffield, United Kingdom: A small-area level geographical study." Stroke 36, 239-43.
• Maheswaran, R., R. Haining, P. Brindley, , T. Pearson, P. Fryers, S. Wise, and M. Campbell (2005). "Outdoor air pollution, mortality, and hospital admissions from coronary heart disease in Sheffield, UK: A small-area level ecological study." European Heart Journal, 26(23), 2543-2549.
• Law, J., and R. P. Haining (2004). "A Bayesian approach to modelling binary data: The case of high-intensity crime areas." Geographical Analysis 36:3 197-216.

Chapters in books

• Quick, M.*, and J. Law (2015). “Analyzing the Influence of Ethnic Composition and Immigrant Residents on the Spatial Distribution of Violent Crime” In F. Harvey & Y. Leung (Eds.), Advances in Spatial Data Handling and Analysis, pp. 227-243: Springer International Publishing, Switzerland.
• Haining, R. and J. Law (2011).“Geographical Information Systems Models and Spatial Data Analysis” in
• Law, J., and P. Chan (2009).“GIS in Public HealthRenmin University Press, Beijing, pp 199-218.
• Law, J., and D. Willms, (2002)“Provincial maps depicting neighbourhood types” in: D. Willms (ed.) University of Alberta Press and Human Resources Development Canada) pp 389-406.

Peer-reviewed papers in conference proceedings

• Quick, M.* and Law, J. (2014). “Analysing the influence of ethnic composition and immigrant residents on the spatial distribution of violent crime”, Joint International Conference on Geospatial Theory, Processing, Modeling and Applications, 16th International Geographic Union Spatial Data Handling Symposium, Toronto, October 6-8, 2014 (In Press)
• Law, J. (2012) “Health and the Environment:A Geographical Study of Drugs at Different School Neighbourhoods”, Proceedings of 3^rd International Conference on Environment Science and Development, IACSIT Press, Vol. 8, pp 230-236.
• Christidis, T.*, and J. Law (2012) “Challenges to Studying the Health Effects of Wind Turbines among Different Research Designs”, Proceedings of 2012 International Conference on Clean and Green Energy, IACSIT Press, Vol. 27, pp 1-5.

Invited talks

• International workshop on “GPS and GIS Integration: Extending Research Frontiers”, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, December 16, 2012.
• GEOMED 2011, 7^th International, Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Statistics and Geomedical Systems, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
• American Association of Geographers 2011 Annual Meeting, Seattle, USA.
• Ontario Association of Law Enforcement Planners (OALEP) 2010 Fall Business Symposium, Kitchener, Ontario, 2010.
• Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, 40^th Annual Symposium, “Global perspectives on Human Health and Nutrition”, University of Guelph, 2010.
• “GIS in Public Health” workshop for Discovery Days in Health Sciences, coordinated by the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (Canadian Medical Association), University of Waterloo, Ontario, 2010.
• Department of Geography, University of Buffalo, New York, USA, 2009.
• Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program (IGERT) Colloquium Series, University of Buffalo, New York, USA, 2009.
• Healthy Communities Knowledge Exchange Forum, University of Waterloo, 2008.
• The Vespucci Initiative for the advancement of geographic information science, International “Spatial analysis” workshop, Fiesole, Italy, 2004.
• Royal Statistical Society, Local Group Seminar, Department of Statistics, Sheffield University, UK, 2003.
• Centre for Applied Statistics, Lancaster University, UK, 2003.
• Social Science and Statistics Seminar, University of Southhampton, UK, 2003.
• Department of Statistics, Economics, Accounting and Management Systems,

Other selected publications/reports (non peer-reviewed)

• Law, J., I. White, S. Bingham, A. Welch, and R. Luben (2007).“Breast cancer and fat: measurement error study.” Centre for Nutritional Epidemiology in Cancer Prevention and Survival, Strangeways Research Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK.
• Law, J. and R. Haining (2007). “South East Wales Regional Housing Forum, UK.
• Willms, J.D., D.L. Watts, R. Konarski, and J. Law (1999).“Forecasting hospital utilization rates in New Brunswick.”Report prepared for the New Brunswick Health Association, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

• Law, J., and C.T. Lau (1995).“Automatic updating of digital map.”Proceedings of the AM/FM International Conference XVIII, Baltimore, USA.
• Law, J., and A. Brimicombe (1994).“Integrating primary and secondary data sources in land information systems for recording change.”Proceedings of the Fig XX International Congress, Melbourne, Australia. 

Conference papers

• Luan, H*, Law, J. And Quick, M* (2016) Local spatio-temporal patterns of relative healthyfood access in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario (2011-2014), The Ontario Public Health Convention, April 4-6, 2016.
• Luan, H.*, Law, J., and L. Minaker (2015). “Diving into the consumer nutrition environment: a retail food environment index based on spatial Bayesian factor analysis at a small-area level”, Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Chicago, April 21-25, 2015.
• Quick, M.*, Luan, H.*, and Law, J. (2015). “The influence of alcohol outlet density on violent crime calls-to-police in Waterloo Region, Ontario: A Bayesian spatial analysis”, Canadian Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC / June 1 ‐ 5, 2015.
• Law, J. “Bayesian hierarchical model for analysis of space-time data in social science research”, The Ninth ICSA International Conference: Challenges of Statistical Methods for Interdisciplinary Research and Big Data, December 21, 2013, Hong Kong, 2013.
• Claire, P., P. Bigelow, S. Majowicz, J. Law, and T. Christidis, “Wind turbine noise, sleep quality, and symptoms of inner ear problems”, Poster, Symposium of Sustainability from the Council of Ontario Universities, Toronto, October 15, 2013.
• Law, J. “What characteristics of urban development matter in the planning of healthy and safe communities: findings from spatial analysis of juvenile delinquents?” International Conference on Spatial and Social Transformation in Urban China, Hong Kong, 2012.
• Law, J. “Bayesian Spatial Analysis of Recorded Injuries for Strategic Planning to Prevent Injuries: Variable versus Equal Weighting of Neighbours in Conditional Autoregressive Modelling”, GEOMED: 7^th International, Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Statistics and Geomedical Systems, Victoria, British Columbia, 2011.
• Law, J. “Understanding the Distribution of Crime: Does It Matter When and Where They Occur? A Bayesian Spatio-temporal Analysis approach”, Session on Applications of Spatial-temporal Analysis in GIScience, American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Seattle, USA, 2011.
• Chan W.*, J. Law, and P. Seliske “Exploring the Association between Seniors’ Falls and Housing Condition using GIS and Bayesian Spatial Analysis”, Combined Research Day in Geriatric Medicine, Hamilton, Ontario, 2011.
• Chan, W.*, J. Law, and P. Seliske “Bayesian Spatial Methods for Small-area Injury Analysis: a Case Study of Seniors’ Falls in the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Region”, Association of Public Health Epidemiologists Conference, Horseshoe Valley, Ontario, 2011.
• Law, J. “The use of GIS for Research and Analysis of Crime”, Ontario Association of Law Enforcement Planners (OALEP) 2010 Fall Business Symposium, Kitchener, Ontario, 2010.
• Chan, W.*, J. Law, and P. Seliske “Use of a Bayesian Spatial Modelling Approach to Analyze Cases of Seniors’ Falls in the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Region”, 39th Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting, Canadian Association on Gerontology, 2010, Montreal, QC.
• Harris, B.*, J. Law, P. Rodriguez, P.C. Gupta, D.N. Sinha, and P. Jha “Canadian Association of Geographers, Ontario Division, Annual Meeting, 2010.
• Meng, G.*, J. Law, and M. Thompson “Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) Data Handling for Geographical Analysis of Social and Environmental Determinants of Adverse Birth Outcomes”, Canadian Public Health Association Centennial Conference, Toronto, Canada 2010.
• Law, J. “Drug at Schools and their Neighbourhoods”, 14^th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, Hong Kong, 2010.
• Maheswaran, R., G. Li, J. Law, R. Haining, M. Blangiardo, S. Richardson, and N. Best “Inference from ecological models: air pollution and stroke using data from Sheffield, England”, GEOMED, 6th international, interdisciplinary conference on geomedical systems, Charleston, SC, USA, 2009.
• Haining, R. And Law, J. “Bayesian spatial modelling of high-intensity crime areas”, Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, London, UK, 2003.
• Law, J. And Haining, R. “Bayesian spatial modelling of high-intensity crime areas”, Regional Science Association International Conference, Scotland, UK, 2003.
• Law, J. “Exploring communities using multivariate demographic Data”, Geo99: Mapping the Future: Tools, Techniques, Technologies, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, 1999.
• Law, J. “Identifying communities through spatial analysis of multivariate demographic data”, Spatial Data Infrastructure’98: The 10^th International Geomatics Conference, Ottawa, Canada, 1998.
• Law, J. “The application and potential development of land information system in survey division, Highways Department, Hong Kong”, Asia GIS/LIS AM/FM and Spatial Analysis Conference, Hong Kong, 1994.

Conference posters

• Perlman, CM, Law, J., Rios, S., Luan H*., Seitz, D., & Stolee, P. “Hotspots” of Psychiatric Hospitalizations among Older Adults with Delirium, Dementia, and Cognitive Disorders in Ontario, 2011 to 2014. Poster presented at the 2016 CAHSPR Conference: A Learning Healthcare System: Let the Patient Revolution Begin!, Toronto, May 10-12, 2016. 
• Leung, A* and J. Law. “The relationship between violence, alcohol availability, illegal drug use and land use in Toronto”, Joint International Conference on Geospatial Theory, Processing, Modeling and Applications, 16th International Geographic Union Spatial Data Handling Symposium, Toronto, October 6-8, 2014. (Won the Best Poster Award)

Research funding

Professional Activities

Professional affiliations

• IGU Commission on Modelling Geographical Systems
• UK Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), professional member
• The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors, professional member

Refereeing

• Grant reviewer for UK Medical Research Council, 2014-2016.
• Panel Chair, Ontario Council of Universities, Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, Social Sciences Division, 2012-13.
• Reviewer for the Austrian Science Fund, Humanities and Social Sciences, July 2010.
• Reviewer for Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Standard Research Grants Program), 2009.
• Reviewer for Journals: Annals of Regional Science; Journal of Quantitative Criminology; Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Planning Practice and Research; Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology; Biometrics; Geografiska Annaler B: Human Geography; International Journal of Health Geographies; Computers, Environment and Urban Systems; Annals of the Association of American Geographers; Environment and Planning A; Geographical Analysis; Journal of Geographical Systems; Urban Geography; and Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 2003-present.
• Reviewer for International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing book series volume on “Advances in Web-based GIS, Mapping Services and Applications”, 2009 (book chapter).
• Reviewer for “An Introduction to Geographical Information Systems”, 3^rd edition by Ian Heywood et al. for Pearson Education Prentice Hall Press, 2003.
• Committee member, Horwood (Best Paper) Award URISA International, 2000-2001.

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