Correlating Urban Population Density and Sustainability Using the Corona Index Method

Abstract

A high population density is considered beneficial for sustainable urban planning. In crisis conditions, such as the present COVID-19 pandemic, the role of population density needs to be clearly understood in order to deal with the situation and also plan the future pandemic interventions. The paper presents a case study approach in a Nagpur, India to understand the relation between urban population density and the COVID-19 spread during the first wave. Spatial density maps and COVID-19 patient data for five consecutive critical months have been correlated using the corona index method. The corona index helps to determine the severity of the disease spread in neighbourhoods of varying population densities. The study reveals a high corona index in high-density areas and a low corona index in low- and medium-density areas. It shows that although high-density planning is sustainable, it proves hazardous for public health during pandemics. The study reveals that high-density areas are at a greater risk of disease spread during pandemics.

Tokyo's COVID-19: An urban perspective on factors influencing infection rates in a global city

“…We employed various types of density to see to what extent they are associated with the infection rate. Most previous studies have found population density to be the most correlated factor ( Kamble and Bahadure, 2021 ; Vaz, 2021 ; Kaufman et al., 2021 ). Our results confirm that population density is positively correlated with the COVID-19 infection rate.…”

“…Correlation analysis is one of the most fundamental methods to understand the association between the built environment and human factors of COVID-19 spread in cities ( Kadi and Khelfaoui, 2020 ; Tieskens et al., 2021 ; Mehmood et al., 2021 ; Kamble and Bahadure, 2021 ). We have employed Pearson correlation for two reasons: First, to understand the association between selected factors and COVID-19 rate spread.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that some built environment factors like land use, housing conditions, density, transport, access to facilities, and health infrastructures are critical to understanding the dynamics of COVID-19 infection in cities ( Khavarian-Garmsir et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2020 ; You et al., 2020 ; Kamble and Bahadure, 2021 ). Regarding land use and mobility, it has been discussed that a mix of different land uses increases local accessibility to daily and weekly needs, which reduces the need for travel, thereby facilitating better resilience to pandemics.…”