Jean-Claude Thill

Jean-Claude Thill

Knight Distinguished Professor
Geography & Earth Sciences
704-687-5973
McEniry 432

Education:

Ph.D., Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, 1988

Research Interest:

Dr. Thill has a long standing interest in the study of the spatial dimensions of socio-economic organizations at the metropolitan and regional scale, particularly the interfacing between transportation and mobility systems, urban land use, urban forms and urban functions, urban adaptation and resilience. His recent research has focused on the dynamics of the Charlotte metropolitan area, the temporal change in spatial patterns of neighborhood quality of life, accessibility, housing trends, school location and public decision making, and urban analytics. His research is methodologically rooted in the traditions of Regional Science and Geographic Information Science.

Recent Publications:

  • Zhong, Z., Thill, J. C., Sun, Y., & Wang, Z. (2020). Carbon emissions embodied in trade and urban regional climate policy-making in the Shanghai mega-region. In Innovations in Urban and Regional Systems: Contributions from GIS&T, Spatial Analysis and Location Modeling (pp. 385-416). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  • Zhang, W., Kockelman, K. M., & Thill, J. C. (2020). City land use and rent dynamics with location externalities and zoning regulations: A dynamic spatial general equilibrium model. In Innovations in Urban and Regional Systems (pp. 185-212). Springer, Cham.
  • Thill, J. C. (2020). Innovations in Urban and Regional Systems. Springer International Publishing.
  • Shen, D., Thill, J. C., & Sun, J. (2020). Are Chinese cities oversized?. International Regional Science Review, 43(6), 632-654.
  • Thill, J. C. (2020). Research on urban and regional systems: Contributions from gis&t, spatial analysis, and location modeling. In Innovations in Urban and Regional Systems: Contributions from GIS&T, Spatial Analysis and Location Modeling (pp. 3-20). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  • Tao, R., Gong, Z., Ma, Q., & Thill, J. C. (2020). Boosting computational effectiveness in big spatial flow data analysis with intelligent data reduction. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 9(5), 299.
  • Tsvetkova, A., Conroy, T., & Thill, J. C. (2020). Surviving in a high-tech manufacturing industry: the role of innovative environment and proximity to metropolitan industrial portfolio. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 16(2), 501-527.
  • Gong, Z., Cai, T., Thill, J. C., Hale, S., & Graham, M. (2020). Measuring relative opinion from location-based social media: A case study of the 2016 US presidential election. Plos one, 15(5), e0233660.
  • Yonto, D., & Thill, J. C. (2020). Gentrification in the US New South: Evidence from two types of African American communities in Charlotte. Cities, 97, 102475.
  • Tao, R., & Thill, J. C. (2020). BiFlowLISA: Measuring spatial association for bivariate flow data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 83, 101519.
  • Rahman, M. M., Thill, J. C., & Paul, K. C. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic severity, lockdown regimes, and people’s mobility: Early evidence from 88 countries. Sustainability, 12(21), 9101.
  • Zhou, Y., & Thill, J. C. (2020). Urban nodal regions through communities of functionally critical locations in the transportation network. In Development Studies in Regional Science: Essays in Honor of Kingsley E. Haynes (pp. 293-311). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
  • Popovich, V., Thill, J. C., Schrenk, M., & Claramunt, C. (2020). Information Fusion and Intelligent Geographic Information Systems.
  • Asami, Y., & Thill, J. C. (2020). Special feature section on spatial analysis and modeling: part II. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, 4(1), 135-138.
  • Nikparvar, B., & Thill, J. C. (2021). Machine learning of spatial data. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 10(9), 600.
  • Nikparvar, B., Rahman, M. M., Hatami, F., & Thill, J. C. (2021). Spatio-temporal prediction of the COVID-19 pandemic in US counties: modeling with a deep LSTM neural network. Scientific reports, 11(1), 21715.
  • Rahman, M. M., Paul, K. C., Hossain, M. A., Ali, G. M. N., Rahman, M. S., & Thill, J. C. (2021). Machine learning on the COVID-19 pandemic, human mobility and air quality: A review. Ieee Access, 9, 72420-72450.
  • Ali, G. M. N., Rahman, M. M., Hossain, M. A., Rahman, M. S., Paul, K. C., Thill, J. C., & Samuel, J. (2021, August). Public perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines: Policy implications from US spatiotemporal sentiment analytics. In Healthcare (Vol. 9, No. 9, p. 1110). MDPI.
  • Chen, S., Paul, R., Janies, D., Murphy, K., Feng, T., & Thill, J. C. (2021). Exploring feasibility of multivariate deep learning models in predicting COVID-19 epidemic. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 661615.
  • Zhou, Y., Thill, J. C., Xu, Y., & Fang, Z. (2021). Variability in individual home-work activity patterns. Journal of Transport Geography, 90, 102901.
  • Guerrero, D., & Thill, J. C. (2021). Challenging the shipper’s location problem in port studies: An analysis of French AOC wine shipments to the US. Journal of Transport Geography, 91, 102986.
  • Guerrero, D., Nierat, P., Thill, J. C., & Cohen, E. (2021). Visualizing maritime connectivity at national level: the case of LSBCI links of West European countries. Case Studies on Transport Policy, 9(4), 1818-1824.
  • Mharzi-Alaoui, H., Thill, J. C., Bahi, H., Hajji, H., Assali, F., & Moukrim, S. (2021, November). Smart prediction system for territorial resilience at the large-scale level. Case study of the seasonal forest fires risk in northern Morocco. In The proceedings of the international conference on smart city applications (pp. 533-547). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  • Shen, D., Thill, J. C., & Sun, J. (2021). The determinants of city population in China. Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, 5(1), 289-304.
  • Jung, P. H., Thill, J. C., & Galvis-Aponte, L. A. (2021). State Failure, Violence, and Trade: Dangerous Trade Routes in Colombia. Documento sobre economía regional y urbana; No. 303.
  • Rahman, M. M., Najaf, P., Fields, M. G., & Thill, J. C. (2022). Traffic congestion and its urban scale factors: Empirical evidence from American urban areas. International journal of sustainable transportation, 16(5), 406-421.
  • Rahman, M. M., & Thill, J. C. (2022). Associations between COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown measures and human mobility: longitudinal evidence from 86 countries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(12), 7317.
  • Truelove, S., Smith, C. P., Qin, M., Mullany, L. C., Borchering, R. K., Lessler, J., … & Viboud, C.,  Thill, J. C. (2022). Projected resurgence of COVID-19 in the United States in July—December 2021 resulting from the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant and faltering vaccination. Elife, 11, e73584.
  • Hatami, F., Chen, S., Paul, R., & Thill, J. C. (2022). Simulating and forecasting the COVID-19 spread in a US Metropolitan region with a spatial SEIR model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 15771.
  • Schmidt, A., Bardaka, E., & Thill, J. C. (2022). Causal, spatiotemporal impacts of transit investments: Exploring spatial heterogeneity from announcement through long-run operation. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 161, 151-169.
  • Jung, P. H., & Thill, J. C. (2022). Sea-land interdependence and delimitation of port hinterland-foreland structures in the international transportation system. Journal of Transport Geography, 99, 103297.
  • Dao, T. H. D., & Thill, J. C. (2022). CrimeScape: Analysis of socio-spatial associations of urban residential motor vehicle theft. Social Science Research, 101, 102618.
  • Dao, T. H. D., & Thill, J. C. (2022). Metric, Topological, and Syntactic Accessibility in Three-Dimensional Urban Networked Spaces: Modeling Options and Visualization. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 11(9), 467.
  • Hatami, F., & Thill, J. C. (2022). Spatiotemporal evaluation of the built Environment’s impact on commuting duration. Sustainability, 14(12), 7179.
  • Guerrero, D., Niérat, P., Thill, J. C., & Cohen, E. (2022). Visualizing the maritime connectivity of African countries. Journal of Transport Geography, 101, 103355.
  • Thill, J. C., & Domínguez, M. Q. (2022). Spatial Analysis of Priority Attention Housing (PAH) Development Projects in the Urban Area of Cali, Colombia. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
  • Guerrero, D., & Thill, J. C. (2023). Port competition in contestable hinterlands: The case of preferential relationships and barrier effects in Central Europe. In Port Systems in Global Competition (pp. 147-164). Routledge.
  • Thill, J. C. (2023). Economic Impacts of Transit Investments, Social Challenges and Strategies for Sustaining High Ridership–Part II.
  • Guerrero, D., & Thill, J. C. (2023). The case of preferential relationships and barrier effects in Central. Port Systems in Global Competition: Spatial-Economic Perspectives on the Co-Development of Seaports.
  • Zhang, H., Gong, Z., & Thill, J. C. (2023). Visual Methods for Representing Flow Space with Vector Fields (Short Paper). In 12th International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience 2023) (pp. 90-1). Schloss Dagstuhl–Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik.
  • Guerrero, D., Niérat, P., & Thill, J. C. (2023). Connecting short and long distance perspectives in freight transportation: Introduction to a special issue. Journal of Transport Geography, 106, 103523.
  • Rahman, M. S., Paul, K. C., Rahman, M. M., Samuel, J., Thill, J. C., Hossain, M. A., & Ali, G. M. N. (2023). Pandemic vulnerability index of US cities: A hybrid knowledge-based and data-driven approach. Sustainable Cities and Society, 95, 104570.
  • Zhang, W., Zhao, P., Niu, C., Thill, J. C., & Zhu, J. (2023). City networks and clusters as expressed in Chinese and Japanese languages: A multiscale network analysis with language-sensitive webpage big data. Cities, 141, 104502.
  • Howerton, E., Contamin, L., Mullany, L. C., Qin, M., Reich, N. G., Bents, S., Thill, J. C. … & UT COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. (2023). Informing pandemic response in the face of uncertainty. An evaluation of the US COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub. medRxiv.
  • Rahman, M. M., Upaul, S., Thill, J. C., & Rahman, M. (2023). Active transportation and the built environment of a mid-size global south city. Sustainable Cities and Society, 89, 104329.
  • Borchering, R. K., Mullany, L. C., Howerton, E., Chinazzi, M., Smith, C. P., Qin, M., … & Lessler, J., Thill, J. C.  (2023). Impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination of children ages 5–11 years on COVID-19 disease burden and resilience to new variants in the United States, November 2021–March 2022: A multi-model study. The Lancet Regional Health–Americas, 17.
  • Tao, R., Chen, Y., & Thill, J. C. (2023). A space-time flow LISA approach for panel flow data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 106, 102042.
  • Rahman, M. M., & Thill, J. C. (2023). Impacts of connected and autonomous vehicles on urban transportation and environment: A comprehensive review. Sustainable Cities and Society, 96, 104649.
  • Howerton, E., Contamin, L., Mullany, L. C., Qin, M., Reich, N. G., Bents, S., … & Lessler, J.,  Thill, J. C. (2023). Evaluation of the US COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub for informing pandemic response under uncertainty. Nature communications, 14(1), 7260.
  • Hatami, F., Rahman, M. M., Nikparvar, B., & Thill, J. C. (2023). Non-linear associations between the urban built environment and commuting modal split: A random forest approach and SHAP evaluation. IEEE Access, 11, 12649-12662.
  • Rahman, M. M., & Thill, J. C. (2023). What drives people’s willingness to adopt autonomous vehicles? A review of internal and external factors. Sustainability, 15(15), 11541.
  • Jung, P. H., & Thill, J. C. (2024). Global shrinkage of space and the hub-and-spoke system in the global trade network. International Regional Science Review, 47(3), 293-324.
  • Zhang, H., Gong, Z., & Thill, J. C. (2024, April). A Review on Urban Modelling for Future Smart Cities. In International Conference on Spatial Data and Intelligence (pp. 346-355). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
  • Guerrero, D., Niérat, P., Thill, J. C., & Cohen, E. (2024). Shifting proximities: visualizing changes in the maritime connectivity of African countries (2006/2016). Maritime Policy & Management, 51(4), 506-525.
  • Jung, P. H., Thill, J. C., & Galvis-Aponte, L. A. (2024). State fragility, violence and trade: Dangerous trade routes in Colombia. Papers in Regional Science, 103(4), 100024.
  • Gallicano, T. D., Wesslen, R., Thill, J. C., Cheng, Z., & Shaikh, S. (2024). Hot Issue Publics in the New Media Age: An Analysis of the Charlotte Protest. Journal of Public Relations Research, 36(1), 23-44.
  • Hatami, F., Poor, A. P., & Thill, J. C. (2024). Non-business services performance forecasting for small urban areas using a spatiotemporal deep learning model. Cities, 152, 105141.
  • Iddrisu, Z., & Thill, J. C. (2024). Socio‐Economic Development Performance and Convergence Among Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies in Ghana. Growth and Change, 55(4), e70007.
  • Nikparvar, B., & Thill, J. C. (2024). Micromobility systems and disease transmission: a spatially explicit agent-based approach. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 38(8), 1678-1701.
  • Pais-Montes, C., Thill, J. C., & Guerrero, D. (2024). Identification of shipping schedule cancellations with AIS data: an application to the Europe-Far East route before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Maritime Economics & Logistics, 26(3), 490-508.
  • Jung, S. M., Loo, S. L., Howerton, E., Contamin, L., Smith, C. P., Carcelén, E. C., … & Lessler, J., Thill, J. C.  (2024). Potential impact of annual vaccination with reformulated COVID-19 vaccines: Lessons from the US COVID-19 scenario modeling hub. PLoS medicine, 21(4), e1004387.
  • Rahman, M. M., & Thill, J. C. (2024). A comprehensive survey of the key determinants of electric vehicle adoption: Challenges and opportunities in the smart city context. World Electric Vehicle Journal, 15(12), 588.
  • Rahman, M. M., & Thill, J. C. (2024). Who is inclined to buy an autonomous vehicle? Empirical evidence from California. Transportation, 1-34.
  • Chen, S., Janies, D., Paul, R., & Thill, J. C. (2024). Leveraging advances in data-driven deep learning methods for hybrid epidemic modeling. Epidemics, 48, 100782.
  • Jodder, P. K., Hossain, M. Z., & Thill, J. C. (2025). Urban Livability in a Rapidly Urbanizing Mid-Size City: Lessons for Planning in the Global South. Sustainability, 17(4), 1504.
  • Kefayat, E., & Thill, J. C. (2025). Urban Street Network Configuration and Property Crime: An Empirical Multivariate Case Study. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 14(5), 200.
  • Zhou, Y., Thill, J. C., Liu, X., Zhong, C., & Tu, W. (2025). Measuring and understanding changes in the physical built environment of cities with street view images. Urban Informatics, 4(1), 3.
  • Rahman, M. M., & Thill, J. C. (2025). What Drives the Use of Pooled Autonomous Vehicles? Some Insights in California Users’ Perspective. Travel Behaviour and Society, 39, 100975.
  • Tao, R., & Thill, J. C. (2025). A Reciprocal Statistic for Detecting the Full Range of Local Patterns of Bivariate Spatial Association. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 115(5), 1185-1206.

Areas of Research and Teaching Expertise

  • Environmental/Infrastructure Policy Urban and Regional Devleopment Faculty Website