Dr Kevin Credit

    National Centre for Geocomputation (NCG), Social Sciences Institute (MUSSI), Geography, Hamilton Institute

    Lecturer/Assistant Professor

    Biography

    As an Assistant Professor at the National Centre for Geocomputation at Maynooth University, my research broadly focuses on understanding how machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches can be designed to more explicitly integrate spatial information and spatial ways of thinking, assess problems of causal inference, and provide better insight into the explanatory relationships driving model results. This includes recent work on developing causal machine learning models for spatial data, which is a growing area of interest in both my research and teaching. I am also interested in AI as a subject of economic analysis in its own right, including the (spatial) environmental and economic connections embedded in the AI value chain as it continues to develop.

    As a former urban planner, my work also addresses a range of substantive topics related to cities, including 1) walkability, non-auto commuting patterns, and the economic and environmental impacts of transportation systems; 2) energy efficiceny and retrofitting activity in residential buildings (and how these fit into larger urban energy and transportation sytems); and 3) the social, spatial, and environmental determinants of health and well-being (among others).

    I serve on the Editorial Boards of Information Geography and the Journal of Geographical Systems, and am a Committee Member of the Irish Transportation Research Network, an Affiliate Member of the Maynooth University Hamilton Institute, an Academic Collaborator at the ADAPT Centre for Digital Media Technology in the Digital Content Transformation (DCT) Strand, and a Fellow of the Center for Spatial Data Science at the University of Chicago. I received my PhD in Geography from Michigan State University in 2018.

    Follow me on BlueSky, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and LinkedIn for periodic research updates, as well as GitHub for open source code implementations. 

    Research Interests

    Spatial data science, machine learning, non-auto transportation, entrepreneurship, health geography, retail location, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions

    Research Projects

    Title Role Description Start date End date Amount
    D8 Health + Environment Dashboard PI The goal of this project is to create a community-focused, interactive, and open source data dashboard to help inform local planning, decision-making, and investment. Through a partnership with An Taisce, Smart D8, and other community stakeholders, we will accomplish this by first engaging with the public to understand the specific health and environment data needs of the community, then collecting and combining data on key metrics, creating new data through citizen science projects where needed. Importantly, we plan to make these metrics available in a straightforward, easy-to-use, online spatial data platform that provides local area and neighbourhood-wide reports and maps. 16/12/2022 15/09/2023 11099
    Exploring realistic pathways to the decarbonization of buildings at urban scale: a case study of Dublin city PI 02/01/2023 30/06/2024 7570
    ADDITIONAL FUNDING - Exploring realistic pathways to the decarbonization of buildings at urban scale: a case study of Dublin city PI 01/07/2023 30/06/2024 7570
    Promoting the active mobility of children from disadvantaged backgrounds: a comparative approach between Dublin and Strasbourg Co-I This project investigates the active mobility of children in Ireland and France, with a particular focus on disadvantaged urban areas in Dublin and Strasbourg. The aim of this project is to better understand potential structural barriers to child active mobility in urban areas of disadvantage. How are children’s opportunities for active mobility in Dublin and Strasbourg shaped by the built environment in each city, and what are the main similarities and differences between the two contexts? How does the provision of infrastructure for children compare in the two cities, and what is the potential impact on children’s mobility? 01/01/2024 31/12/2025 2685
    A Just Transition for Housing in Ireland Co-I The overall concept of the project is about building on cutting edge international research on the social justice implications of low-carbon and climate resilient development, applying innovative methodological approaches in the context of an urgent environmental and social challenge, and ensuring that findings are translated into actionable policy recommendations and communicated effectively to key stakeholders and decision-makers. 01/01/2024 31/12/2025 506202

    Peer Reviewed Journal

    Year Publication
    2024 Credit, K.; Kekezi, O.; Mellander, C.; Florida, R. (2024) 'Third places, the connective fibre of cities and high-tech entrepreneurship'. Regional Studies, . [Link] [DOI]
    2023 Credit, K.; Lehnert, M. (2023) 'A structured comparison of causal machine learning methods to assess heterogeneous treatment effects in spatial data'. Journal of Geographical Systems, . [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2022 Credit, K; Arnao, Z (2022) 'A method to derive small area estimates of linked commuting trips by mode from open source LODES and ACS data'. Environment And Planning B: Urban Analytics And City Science, . [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2021 Credit, K (2021) 'Spatial Models or Random Forest? Evaluating the Use of Spatially Explicit Machine Learning Methods to Predict Employment Density around New Transit Stations in Los Angeles'. Geographical Analysis, . [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2021 Credit K.; van Lieshout E. (2021) 'The pandemic economy: Exploring the change in new business license activity in chicago, usa from march – september, 2020'. Region, 8 (2):29-56. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2021 Credit K.; Dias G.; Li B. (2021) 'Exploring neighbourhood-level mobility inequity in Chicago using dynamic transportation mode choice profiles'. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 12 . [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2021 Ballantyne P.; Singleton A.; Dolega L.; Credit K. (2021) 'A framework for delineating the scale, extent and characteristics of American retail centre agglomerations'. Environment And Planning B: Urban Analytics And City Science, . https://doi.org/10.18335/region.v8i2.349 [Full-Text]
    2020 Credit K. (2020) 'Neighbourhood inequity: Exploring the factors underlying racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 testing and infection rates using ZIP code data in Chicago and New York'. Regional Science Policy And Practice, 12 (6):1249-1271. [DOI]
    2019 Credit K. (2019) 'Transitive properties: a spatial econometric analysis of new business creation around transit'. Spatial Economic Analysis, 14 (1):26-52. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2019 Credit K. (2019) 'Accessibility and agglomeration: A theoretical framework for understanding the connection between transportation modes, agglomeration benefits, and types of businesses'. Geography Compass, 13 (4). [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2019 Mack E.; Credit K. (2019) 'New Business Activity and Employment Dynamics in the Inner City: The Case of Phoenix, Arizona'. Urban Affairs Review, 55 (2):530-557. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2019 Credit K.; Mack E. (2019) 'Place-making and performance: The impact of walkable built environments on business performance in Phoenix and Boston'. Environment And Planning B: Urban Analytics And City Science, 46 (2):264-285. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2019 Kevin Credit, Elizabeth Mack, and Sarah Wrase (2019) 'A Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) Analytical Framework for Assessing the Regional Economic Impacts of Rising Water Prices'. Review of Regional Studies, 49 (2). [Link] [Full-Text]
    2018 Mack E.A.; Credit K.; Suandi M. (2018) 'A comparative analysis of firm co-location behaviour in the Detroit metropolitan area'. Industry and Innovation, 25 (3):264-281. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2018 Credit K. (2018) 'Transit-oriented economic development: The impact of light rail on new business starts in the Phoenix, AZ Region, USA'. Urban Studies, 55 (13):2838-2862. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2018 Credit, K; Mack, EA; Mayer, H (2018) 'State of the field: Data and metrics for geographic analyses of entrepreneurial ecosystems'. Geography Compass, 12 . [DOI]
    2017 Mack E.A.; Tong D.; Credit K. (2017) 'Gardening in the desert: A spatial optimization approach to locating gardens in rapidly expanding urban environments'. International Journal of Health Geographics, 16 (1). [DOI] [Full-Text]

    Book Chapter

    Year Publication
    2018 Kevin Credit and Elizabeth Mack (2018) 'The Intra-Metropolitan Geography of Entrepreneurship: a Spatial, Temporal, and Industrial Analysis (1989-2010)' In: Geographies of Entrepreneurship. New York : Taylor and Francis.

    Conference Contribution

    Year Publication
    2024 Xiao, Q.; Liu, D.; Credit, K. (2024) International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2024 Model Failure or Data Corruption? Exploring Inconsistencies in Building Energy Ratings with Self-Supervised Contrastive Learning Austria, . [Link]
    2024 Credit, K.; Xiao, Q.; Lehane, J.; Vazquez, J.; Liu, D.; de Figueiredo, L. (2024) PLEA 2024 LuminLab: An AI-Powered Building Retrofit and Energy Modelling Platform Poland, . [Link]
    2024 Credit, K.; Farah, I.; Talen, E.; Anselin, L.; Ghomrawi, H. (2024) Proceedings of the 32nd GISRUK Conference The Walkable Accessibility Score (WAS): A spatially-granular open-source measure of walkability for the continental US from 1997-2019 UK, . [Link]
    Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2025) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

    Professional Associations

    Description Function From / To
    Center for Spatial Data Science Fellow 01/01/2021 -
    Geography Society of Ireland Member 01/08/2021 -
    American Collegiate Schools of Planning Member 01/01/2014 -
    Association of American Geographers Member 01/08/2014 -
    Regional Science Association International Member 01/11/2015 -
    ADAPT Centre for Digital Media Technology Academic Collaborator 01/01/2022 -

    Honors and Awards

    Date Title Awarding Body
    01/01/2022 Best Paper in Regional Science Policy and Practice Regional Science Policy and Practice

    Employment

    Employer Position From / To
    Maynooth University Assistant Professor 01/02/2021 -
    University of Chicago Assistant Director for Urban Informatics, Assistant Instructional Professor in GIScience 01/07/2018 - 31/01/2021

    Education

    Start date Institution Qualification Subject
    01/09/2006 University of Kansas BA English
    01/09/2015 Michigan State University PhD Geography
    01/09/2010 Kansas State University Masters Regional and Community Planning

    Other Activities

    Description
    https://courses.planetizen.com/instructor/kevin-credit

    Teaching Interests

    Maynooth University

    • NCG613: Data Analytics Project (2021-current)
    • GY636: Geographic Information Systems in Practice (2024-current)
    • GY638: Geographic Information Systems in Practice (2022-current)
    • GY310B: Geography Research Workshops - Geographies of Entrepreneurship and 'Churn' (2023)
    • GY208: Field Methods and Data Analysis (2023-current)

    University of Warsaw

    University of Chicago

    • Introduction to GIS and Spatial Analysis for Social Scientists
    • Geographic Information Science I
    • GIScience Practicum
    • Social Science Inquiry: Spatial Analysis III
    • Introduction to Location Analysis
    • Transportation Geography
    • Introduction to Urban Planning

    Michigan State University

    • Introduction to Physical Geography
    • Introduction to Economic Geography
    • Location Theory and Land Use Analysis