The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in geographic science

• Autor(a) principal: Benitez-Valerio, Violeta Shaid
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Juárez, Marcela Virginia Santana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Health Review
• Texto Completo: https://ojs.brazilianjournals.com.br/ojs/index.php/BJHR/article/view/68623
• topic: health geography; spatial-temporal dynamics; COVID-19; Geo Artificial Intelligence; Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted geographers and specialists of other areas, driving them to generate knowledge aimed to explain and find solutions to the health crisis that emerged in March 2020. Within the field of geography, quantitative methods, and geotechnologies have been employed to collect measurable data which prove useful explanation and the logical relationship between variables, verifying hypotheses related to COVID-19 contagion and mortality cases. Health geography, as a disciplinary branch, has investigated the spatial-temporal distribution and dynamics of diseases, seeking to understand the processes explaining the spatial structure of them during a pandemic. In this context, a case of study, Mexico City, seeks to address questions from a health geography perspective, such as: What were the causes behind the high levels of pandemic contagion? Which environmental, social, and health factors in time and space relate and contribute to a greater impact of the pandemic? How do these factors interact with each other, and how have they influenced the increase or decrease in contagion and mortality cases? What are the short, medium, and long-term scenarios of COVID-19? To address these inquiries, spatial analysis methods and geotechnological techniques, approached holistically and have efficiently supported the identification of COVID-19 contagion risk zones and their specific characteristics. These insights prove invaluable information for spatial decision-making in comprehensive planning and territorial management.