Background and objectives: Due to COVID-19, various countries introduced lockdowns and limited citizen movements. These restrictions triggered an increased use of digital technologies and platforms by the public. This provides an opportunity for the authorities to capture public perceptions on COVID-19 from social media channels to make informed decisions. The use of social media analytics during pandemics for decision-making, however, is an understudied area of research. Thus, this study aims to generate insights into how social media analytics can assist authorities in pandemic-related policy decisions. Methods: This study involved a social media analysis approach-i.e., systematic geo-Twitter analysis-that contains descriptive, content, sentiment, and spatial analyses. Australian states and territories are selected as the case study context for the empirical investigation. This study collected 96,666 geotagged tweets (originated from Australia between 1 January and 4 May 2020), and analysed 35,969 of them after data cleaning. Results: The findings disclose that: (a) Social media analytics is an efficient approach to capture the attitudes and perceptions of the public during a pandemic; (b) Crowdsourced social media data can guide interventions and decisions of the authorities during a pandemic, and; (c) Effective use of government social media channels can help the public to follow the introduced measures/restrictions. Conclusion: The findings are invaluable for authorities to understand community perceptions and identify communities in needs and demands in a pandemic situation, where authorities are not in a position to conduct direct and lengthily public consultations.

PurposeFirst, the key vulnerability factors from the literature are identified. Second, using the vulnerability factors as indicators, a composite index is developed. Last, from the index values, a set of vulnerability knowledge maps, showing the vulnerability hotspots, are prepared.Design/methodology/approachThis study aims to develop a pandemic vulnerability knowledge visualisation index to support the strategic decision-making efforts of authorities.FindingsTen indicators are identified as vulnerability factors that could significantly impact the virus spread risks. Verifying the identified hotspots against the recorded infected cases and deaths has evidenced the usefulness of the index. Determining and visualising the high-vulnerability locations and communities could help in informed strategic decision-making and responses of the authorities to the pandemic.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates that the developed pandemic vulnerability knowledge visualisation index is particularly appropriate in the context of Australia. Nonetheless, by replicating the methodologic steps of the study, customised versions can be developed for other country contexts.

Background and objectives: Due to COVID-19, various countries introduced lockdowns and limited citizen movements. These restrictions triggered an increased use of digital technologies and platforms by the public. This provides an opportunity for the authorities to capture public perceptions on COVID-19 from social media channels to make informed decisions. The use of social media analytics during pandemics for decision-making, however, is an understudied area of research. Thus, this study aims to generate insights into how social media analytics can assist authorities in pandemic-related policy decisions.Methods: This study involved a social media analysis approach—i.e., systematic geo-Twitter analysis—that contains descriptive, content, sentiment, and spatial analyses. Australian states and territories are selected as the case study context for the empirical investigation. This study collected 96,666 geotagged tweets (originated from Australia between 1 January and 4 May 2020), and analysed 35,969 of them after data cleaning.Results: The findings disclose that: (a) Social media analytics is an efficient approach to capture the attitudes and perceptions of the public during a pandemic; (b) Crowdsourced social media data can guide interventions and decisions of the authorities during a pandemic, and; (c) Effective use of government social media channels can help the public to follow the introduced measures/restrictions.Conclusion: The findings are invaluable for authorities to understand community perceptions and identify communities in needs and demands in a pandemic situation, where authorities are not in a position to conduct direct and lengthily public consultations.

Hospital is one of the most important and beneficial public services in the world, therefore, these facilities should be located in a rational manner. Increasing the population of countries particularly developing countries and remote areas leads to the demand for new public health facilities and hospitals. No matter who provides the healthcare facilities, the most important issue is where to locate a new hospital to provide, both facility location and attractiveness. Hospital proper site selection has a vital role in hospital construction and management. From the aspect of the government and healthcare organization, appropriate hospital site selection will help optimize the allocation of medical resources, matching the provision of health care with the social and economic demands. From the aspect of the investors and operators of the hospital, optimum hospital site selection will definitely be cost-saving on capital strategy. On the other hand, establishing a hospital in urban districts has its own positive and negative consequences. The positive impacts of establishing a hospital in an area are that it increases property value in the neighboring periphery as well as improving healthrelated accessibility for the residents of that urban district. The negative impacts of establishing a hospital in an area are negative side-effects such as environmental contamination and inducing new waves of traffic flow. Then, the adjacent community is impacted by forms of increased traffic flow, increased emergency vehicle usage in residential areas. Therefore, in hospital site selection should be tried to reduce the negative impacts. Then, main aim of this paper is to select a site for the building of a new hospital in Iskandar Malaysia using GIS-based Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) with consideration of various factor criteria, and constraint criteria in order to balance the medical resource there.

Afghanistan witnessed rapid urbanization in recent decades due to the post-war recovery process. When the war ended in 2001 with the fall of Taliban regime, most Afghan refugees returned to urban areas of Afghanistan, especially in Kabul. Moreover, the rapid urbanization, migration from rural areas, and population growth impacted Kabul with the manifestation of informal settlement. The residents of informal settlements suffer social and economic exclusion from the benefits and opportunities of an urban environment. Furthermore, the residents of informal settlements experience disadvantages such as geographical marginalization, shortage of basic infrastructure, improper governance framework, vulnerability to the effect of poor environment, and natural disasters. With all the above, the problems of informal settlements are considered enormous challenges for informal residents. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the proper approaches to addressing informal settlement problems in District 13 of Kabul. To reach the aim of the research, the interview and questionnaires survey were used as instrument in data collection. The finding of this paper indicates that through the resident’s preferences, government capacity, and District 13 physical condition, there are three approaches that can be implemented and adopted for improvement of informal settlement in District 13 of Kabul, which is settlement upgrading, the land readjustment, and urban redevelopment.