Background: Geographic information science (GIS) has established itself as a distinct domain and incredibly useful whenever the research is related to geography, space, and other spatio-temporal dimensions. However, the scientific landscape on the integration of GIS in COVID-related studies is largely unknown. In this systematic review, we assessed the current evidence on the implementation of GIS and other geospatial tools in the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We systematically retrieved and reviewed 79 research articles that either directly used GIS or other geospatial tools as part of their analysis. We grouped the identified papers under six broader thematic groups based on the objectives and research questions of the study- environmental, socio-economic, and cultural, public health, spatial transmission, computer-aided modeling, and data mining. Results: The interdisciplinary nature of how geographic and spatial analysis was used in COVID-19 research was notable among the reviewed papers. Although GIS has substantial potential in planning to slow down the spread, surveillance, contact tracing, and identify the trends and hotspots of breakdowns, it was not employed as much as it could have been. This review not only provided an overarching view on how GIS has been used in COVID-19 research so far but also concluded that this geospatial analysis and technologies could be used in future public health emergencies along with statistical and other socio-economic modeling techniques. Our systematic review also provides how both scientific communities and policymakers could leverage GIS to extract useful information to make an informed decision in the future. Conclusions:  Despite the limited applications of GIS in identifying the nature and spatio-temporal pattern of this raging pandemic, there are opportunities to utilize these techniques in handling the pandemic. The use of spatial analysis and GIS could significantly improve how we understand the pandemic as well as address the underserviced demographic groups and communities.

Highlights Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques are widely used across scientific disciplines, including public health since the mid-1960s GIS has been playing a critical role in understanding the spatial clustering and transmission trend of the ongoing COVID-19 The Johns Hopkins University created a near-real-time GIS-based COVID-19 case tracking and documentation mechanism. Applications of GIS in COVID-19 related studies were focused on mapping the cases on different administrative units GIS could be used to predict not only the confirmed case numbers but also specific locations where the outbreak would happen with a higher statistical precision

Geographic Information Science (GIS) had established itself as a distinct domain and incredibly useful whenever the research is related to geography, space, and other spatio-temporal dimensions. However, the scientific landscape on the integration of GIS in the COVID related studies is largely unknown. In this systematic review, we assessed the current evidence on the implementation of GIS and other geospatial tools and technologies in COVID-19 pandemic. We systematically retrieved and reviewed 79 research articles that either directly used GIS or other Geospatial tools as part of their analysis. We grouped the identified papers under six broader thematic groups based on the objectives and research questions of the study- environmental, socio-economic, and cultural, public health, spatial transmission, computer-aided modeling, and data mining. The interdisciplinary nature of how geographic and spatial analysis was used in COVID-19 research was noticeable among the reviewed papers. Although GIS has substantial potential in planning to slow down the spread, surveillance, contact tracing, and identify the trends and hotspots of breakdowns, it was not employed as much as it could have been. This review not only provided an overarching view on how GIS has been used in COVID-19 research so far but also concluded that this geospatial analysis and technologies could be used in future public health emergencies along with statistical and other socio-economic modeling techniques. Our systematic review also provides how both scientific communities and policymakers could leverage GIS to extract useful information to make an informed decision in the coming days.

Background: Geographic information science (GIS) has established itself as a distinct domain and incredibly useful whenever the research is related to geography, space, and other spatio-temporal dimensions. However, the scientific landscape on the integration of GIS in COVID-related studies is largely unknown. In this systematic review, we assessed the current evidence on the implementation of GIS and other geospatial tools in the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We systematically retrieved and reviewed 79 research articles that either directly used GIS or other geospatial tools as part of their analysis. We grouped the identified papers under six broader thematic groups based on the objectives and research questions of the study- environmental, socio-economic, and cultural, public health, spatial transmission, computer-aided modeling, and data mining. Results: The interdisciplinary nature of how geographic and spatial analysis was used in COVID-19 research was notable among the reviewed papers. Geospatial techniques, especially WebGIS, have even been widely used to visualize the data on a map and were critical to informing the public regarding the spread of the virus, especially during the early days of the pandemic. This review not only provided an overarching view on how GIS has been used in COVID-19 research so far but also concluded that geospatial analysis and technologies could be used in future public health emergencies along with statistical and other socio-economic modeling techniques. Our review also highlighted how scientific communities and policymakers could leverage GIS to extract useful information to make an informed decision in the future. Conclusions:  Despite the limited applications of GIS in identifying the nature and spatio-temporal pattern of this raging pandemic, there are opportunities to utilize these techniques in handling the pandemic. The use of spatial analysis and GIS could significantly improve how we understand the pandemic as well as address the underserviced demographic groups and communities.

With more than 19 million confirmed cases and over 700 thousand case-fatalities around the world, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic had changed the dynamics of human lives globally. Different Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques are widely used across scientific disciplines, including public health since the mid-1960s. Previous studies found that GIS was actively used in infectious disease mapping. Recently, GIS has been playing a critical role in understanding the spatial clustering and transmission trend of the ongoing COVID-19.3 However, it can be argued that the applications of GIS technologies could have provided more insights for research and practice in the context of COVID-19.

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Affordable housing provision has been a challenge in the United States over the past years. As housing prices increase, a high number of people cannot afford to have their housing, and most residents can only afford to live in apartments in rental areas. This problem becomes more substantial for low-income people, who cannot afford to live near their workplace. Due to this spatial mismatch, these low-income people are forced to commute longer to reach their workplaces every morning in the city of Des Moines. This highlights the importance of proximity and access to the public transport system in the city. This study examined the relationship between investments in affordable housing by a non-profit organization, proximity to public transit, and housing prices in the City of Des Moines, in 2000 and 2018.