The COVID-19 pandemic and urban density: a systematic literature review

The role of density in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic is among the most critical concerns of urban designers and planners. To clarify this role, this systematic literature review is conducted on urban density and the COVID-19 infection and mortality rates in the context of urban design and planning. The studies were searched through three databases including Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science in March 2022 and were screened and reviewed based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. In total, 58 of the 3344 studies had pre-defined criteria. The results were categorised into four sections: population density, building density, built environment factors, and sociodemographic factors. Finally, directions are provided for future studies due to research gaps.

Sustainable and Resilient Planning, Developed Housing Models for Istanbul

This study presents an updated research on the housing planning of Istanbul in the context of sustainability and resiliency as well as the searching innovative models. Due to increasing awareness since the late twentieth century consequently, Climate-change responsive design and planning, sustainability and resiliency became the new design phenomena in housing planning in the world. However, this awareness process needed a much longer period for Istanbul, Turkey, and this was possible with Covid-19. As a driver, first the climate-change and later Covid-19 now radically altered the design and planning ideologies and doctrines that would mitigate the effects of global warming. In this discursive transition period, the environment and climate-friendly design have initiated searching for new housing models considering sustainability, resiliency and green architecture as new planning criteria, especially after the Covid-19 that led to changing lifestyles as well as the working conditions. This paradigm shift has emerged the need for a consensus of interdisciplinary approach that emphasized sustainable and resilience science in architectural design and urban planning. In this context, the overall design discourses have also been updated since Climate-change has become a central focus characteristic of cities. Due to environmental and climate concerns, especially after the Covid-19 housing models have started to evolve into the new, and innovative models from the traditional models. Also, this design discourse aimed that the potential reuse of old housing models with the recent come-back presented new, innovative and sustainable housing models that will be developed in future. This study focused on envisioning the new and innovative housing models and typologies in the context of sustainability and resiliency in the world as well as the models were transferred from the other countries to Istanbul city. Due to changing demand for housing models especially after the pandemic a new plan was initiated by private contractors who intend to produce sustainable friendly projects soon with more green areas to meet people's new requirements. It was revealed that sustainable and resilient designs in the world are closely followed in Istanbul, and although the Climate-change issues have not created expected awareness in Istanbul so far, however, future developments for the city were more promising, especially in the post-Covid-19 period, the radical changes were seen regulations and housing models with more low storeys and more green areas. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Towards Adaptive Planning of Urban Spaces in the Context of a New Agile Urbanism

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, regulative measures and the consequent change in behavioral patterns had a tremendous effect on the use of urban public spaces. The health crisis has emphasized the shortcomings of traditional urban bureaucracies in terms of their ability to react to a quickly changing satiation, while also demonstrating the potential of supporting change through temporary interventions. Experiments like pop-up bike lanes and additional space for gastronomy have shown the ability of municipalities to adapt to changing conditions. Although such short-term interventions can be performed quickly and with minimal costs, in a normal state of affairs municipalities typically struggle to open public spaces to such adaptive concepts. We argue that removing or adding space for certain uses will be an essential part of future urban planning, temporarily changing functions and infrastructural constellations to cope with ever changing environments. According to (Swilling, Social Dynamics 37:78–95, 2011), there are five different concepts of urbanism, describing different configurations of a city's infrastructures. Ranging from the concept of car-oriented urbanism (splintered) to a more modern understanding of cities as ecosystems (green urbanism) and human-centered urban planning (livable urbanism), Swilling's categorization shall be used to identify further aspects of a new concept we introduce as agile urbanism. Therefore, best practices from ongoing projects are taken into account to evaluate potential measures that are effective in establishing more flexible planning procedures. The considered projects comprise living labs and undertaken interventions in a variety of urban contexts. The research questions thereby are: How can municipal planning departments react to short-term changes in the urban flow of people? What kind of processes work in adapting urban space allocation? How can planning procedures be adjusted to cope with the fast-changing use of infrastructures? The application of tactical urbanism and the establishment of living labs are possible municipal instruments to support adaptive planning of urban space. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Adapting Gravity Model for Predicting the Risk of COVID -19 in Nigeria

Background: It is against the background of the emerging incidence of coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria and the need for its management that this study adapts the gravity model for predicting the risk of the disease across states of the country. Method(s): The paper relied on published government data on population and gross domestic product, while the distance of town to the nearest international airport was also obtained. These data were log-transformed and further used in the calculation of gravity scores for each state of the federation. Result(s): The study discovered that with the gravity score ranging from 2.942 to 4.437, all the states of the federation have the risk of being infected with the pandemic. Meanwhile, Ogun State (4.837) has a very high risk of being infected with the disease. Other states with high risks are Oyo (4.312), Jigawa (4.235), Niger (4.148), and Katsina (4.083). However, Taraba State has the least infection risk of pandemic in Nigeria. Factors influencing the risk level of the pandemic are proximity, the porous boundary between states, and elitism. Conclusion(s): The paper advocates border settlement planning, review of housing standards, and advocacy for sanitation in different states. It, therefore, concludes that adequate urban planning in unison with economic and epidemiology techniques will provide a strong strategy for the management of the disease.Copyright © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers.

Do we still need to develop new tools to assess the sustainability of urban agriculture?

Urban agriculture initiatives are increasing in numbers. Projects are being created on all continents and in all kinds of cities large or small. The Covid-19 crisis has also increased the awareness of public authorities to the participation of this agriculture to food provisioning for some populations but also for its participation to social resilience of the city. Studies have been done to evaluate the impact of urban agriculture on city sustainability and tools have been developed to measure it at several scales from the city to the project. The private sector has also begun to work on tools to evaluate the sustainability of urban agricultural projects to help public authorities and landowners choose project to install in new places. With such a plethora of tools, do we still need to work on this subject? As the existing tools do not apply at the same scale, do not rely on the same goals of sustainability and are not always very transparent about their workings? The first step to answer all these questions is through a systematic review of published tools in scientific reviews. Therefore, the objective of this review is to compare the identified tools according to several criteria (scale, type of urban agriculture evaluated, sustainability dimensions studied, complexity/ number/type of indicators, public availability, etc.). This will enable us to identify both the conditions under which existing tools can be used, gaps in the existing pool of resources but also the gaps in knowledge to measure some part of UA sustainability and identified technical and organisation levers than can improve UA sustainability. The first pool of analysed articles shows the use of existing frameworks in half of them whereas half developed their own systems and sometimes indicators. Nearly all tools are based on the three sustainability pillars (environmental, economic and social) even though they are sometimes redesigned for the tool in different categories. © 2022 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.

The concept auf urban soundscapes in the context of alternative small-scale mobility interventions - the Be-MoVe Project

Einleitung For a transformation of cities into sustainable and health-promoting places, the development of suitable acoustic urban spaces is necessary. The acoustic environment, as a designable quality in urban spaces, can be understood as an important resource for a health-promoting city. In particular, motorized mobility plays a central role in urban areas, as recently demonstrated by the massive impact of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on the urban acoustic environment. The Be-MoVe (participation-based transformation of active mobility for health-promoting urban and transport infrastructures) project is a new public health intervention project, launched end of 2021. The main objective of the cooperation project of the Green Capital Agency of the city of Essen, the Institute for Mobility and Urban Planning and the Institute for Urban Public Health is to test co-created alternative forms of mobility and designs of public spaces in neighborhoods. Aim here is to present the study design of the sub-project urban soundscapes. The sub-project addresses the evaluation of planned temporary mobility interventions in terms of their impact on recorded noise emission as well as on the perceived acoustic environment of local residents. Methoden Real-World Labs will be set up in two Essen neighborhoods over the next two years. Together with local residents various temporary measures such as road closures, speed reductions, protected bike lanes and premium pedestrian routes will be implemented on an experimental basis for several months. To assess the perceived acoustic environment, we conduct soundwalks, a participatory instrument described and standardized in the DIN ISO 12913 series. The DIN standards provide guidelines for the application of soundwalks, including questionnaires. The questionnaires aim to identify distinctive sound sources as well as to evaluate the perceived sounds according to predefined criteria, including affective qualities. Soundwalks will be conducted before, during and after the interventions developed in the Real-World Labs. Eight sound walk groups of five people each are planned. Participants are recruited via public relations work, as well as by directly approaching local actors such as sports clubs and citizens' initiatives. In addition, automatic and binaural audio recordings are performed. The recordings allow to analyze the acoustic environment of primarily physical-acoustic characteristics from biophonic, geophonic and anthrophonic sounds and to compare changes of the acoustic environment due to the interventions independent of human perception. Ergebnisse - Schlussfolgerung The inclusion of the concept of sound quality in regard to mobility interventions as well as a link between perception-related and physical-acoustic parameters represent innovative components of this project. The implementation of the soundscape concept in participation-based urban transformations might help to motivate residents for a more health promoting and sustainable active mobility.

Urban Change in Cities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of the Nexus of Factors from Around the World

This research is concerned with understanding the context of influences the COVID-19 pandemic had/has on urban change in cities. It focuses on understanding the nexus of relations through which the pandemic impacted the urban space, urban place and public realm;specifically, the economic, environmental, social, human behavior, administrative and health factors. Using a mixed-methods approach and examples from around the world, an analysis was conducted to highlight the most important factors influencing urban change as a result of the pandemic. The research concluded that there are a multitude of direct and indirect connections between the factors that resulted in long-term and short-term impact on urban change and public realm. An understanding of this nexus of factors constitutes an important and essential step in creating more comprehensive and responsive urban planning/design policies. Thus, mitigating any undesirable urban change and better governing the public realm during similar situations and pandemics in the future. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

[The municipal planning for the benefit of health].

The article, on the basis of analysis of scientific publications, presents brief overview of principles and technologies of development of cities considering impact on population health. The particular attention is paid to analysis of being built areas and careful use of available resources. The definition of the term "sustainable development of territory" and description of necessary measures for its application in practice are given. The actual trend of "coronavirus" transformation of architectural urban environment is presented, including availability for each family member of one's own space, room, house and flat with terrace, balcony, separate entrances (in case when apartment is located on the first floor), expanded house territory, life outside the city. At that, reduction of social relationships is established. To control effectiveness of city management corresponding indices are presented.

Very high-resolution remote sensing-based mapping of urban residential districts to help combat COVID-19.

Urban residential districts (URDs) are a major element in the formation of cities that are essential for urban planning. Regarding the COVID-19 virus, which remains variable in aerosols for several hours, airborne transmission tends to occur in areas of poor ventilation and high occupant density. Thus, ventilation capacity is an important factor influencing airborne transmission in URDs, which should be evaluated as part of efforts to fight COVID-19 and guide healthy city planning and implementation. Here, we develop and test systematic methods to map URDs in a typical city in northern China and quantify their ventilation capacity using very high-resolution remote sensing images. Four fundamental spatial forms of URD are identified in the research area: the point-group form, parallel form, enclosed form, and hybrid form. Our analyses indicate that the integrated ventilation capacities for well-designed URDs are nearly twice those of poorly designed URDs. Large variations in ventilation capacity are also observed within URDs, with up to 13.42 times difference between the buildings. Therefore, very high-resolution remote sensing data are fundamental for extracting building height and generating precise spatial forms, which can improve the micro-scale URD ventilation planning for the prevention of COVID-19.

Examining the COVID-19 effects on travel behavior using smart IoT sensors: A case study of smart city planning in Gangnam, Seoul

The application of IoT in cities is a critical component in constructing a smart city. Seoul Metropolitan Government began installing IoT sensors known collectively as S-DoT in 2019. S-DoT collects real-time climate and floating population data. This study aims to introduce a smart city planning application in Seoul, to validate the S-DoT application, and to suggest a research framework for using S-DoT data. We analyzed S-DoT collected floating population data to examine travel behavior, volume, and patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result showed that micro-level spatiotemporal analysis was possible using S-DoT data, and we identified different floating population patterns. The panel regression result that explained the effects of urban factors on the floating population revealed that the degree of COVID-19 seems to impact people’s travel behavior significantly. As more S-DoT technologies are planning to be deployed in Seoul, the city will begin to collect more sophisticated real-time data. However, planners and policymakers should be attentive to the issues and limitations of newly installed S-DoT systems and find better strategies to use S-DoT data. © International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development.

Conclusions: COVID-19 and Cities: Experiences from Latin American and Asian Pacific Cities

The emergence of the Sars-Cov-2 virus in December 2019 affected the various regions, countries, and communities around the world unequally. Addressing the current pandemic should be understood as a step toward more resilient cities, rather than only focusing on the emergency response and managing a particular crisis. More resilient systems should be more capable of responding to future pandemics or other massive public health issues, and the postpandemic “new normal” could be more sustainable if urban systems incorporate improvements and learn from this crisis. Thus, the pandemic has been an opportunity to think about resilient, creative, and innovative cities with better governance models, safer public spaces, and improved infrastructures. The pandemic constitutes a reminder of the importance of being better connected in order to flexibly adapt to challenges of organizing work in an innovative manner. It is also essential to think about how cities can generate more inclusive opportunities for their inhabitants. Advances in making cities more inclusive, safe, and sustainable as a response to pandemics have the potential of bringing them a step forward on the path to resilience, not only regarding future pandemics, but mostly in confronting perpetual structural challenges and pressures. This book presents a series of contributions, both essays and empirically based case studies from Latin America and Asia (mostly China), on the challenges that the novel coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021 posed on urban systems. The multidisciplinary contributions are placed in different political, social, and economic contexts and are founded in their respective disciplinary, epistemological, and methodological context. Nevertheless, they all contribute to the discussion of urban resilience of cities under the influence of a global crisis. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The Contribution of MCDM to SUMP: The Case of Spanish Cities during 2006-2021.

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) are increasingly popular planning tools in cities with environmental issues where numerous actions are usually proposed to reduce pollution from urban transport. However, the diagnosis and implementation of these processes requires broad consensus from all stakeholders and the ability to fit them into urban planning in such a way that it allows the proposals to become realistic actions. In this study, a review of the sustainable urban mobility plans of 47 cities in Spain during the last 15 years has been carried out, analyzing both the diagnosis and proposal of solutions and their subsequent implementation. From the results obtained, a new framework based on a structured hybrid methodology is proposed to aid decision-making for the evaluation of alternatives in the implementation of proposals in SUMP. This hybrid methodology considers experts' and stakeholders' opinion and applies two different multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods in different phases to present two rankings of best alternatives. From that experience, an analysis based on the MCDM methods called 'Sequential Interactive Modelling for Urban Systems (SIMUS)' and weighted sum method (WSM) was applied to a case study of the city of Cartagena, a southeastern middle-size city in Spain. This analytic proposal has been transferred to the practical field in the SUMP of Cartagena, the first instrument of this nature developed after COVID-19 in Spain for a relevant city. The results show how this framework, based on a hybrid methodology, allows the development of complex decision mapping processes using these instruments without obviating the need to generate planning tools that can be transferred from the theoretical framework of urban reality.

COVID-19 and the compact city: Implications for well-being and sustainable urban planning.

This paper provides new evidence on the role of city planning, urban form, and built environment characteristics in health and well-being during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Based on survey and geographic information systems (GIS) data from Oslo and Viken in Norway, the paper investigates changes in health and well-being due to COVID-19 and how the compact city and its characteristics relate to these changes. Findings indicate that self-reported measures of health and well-being worsened due to COVID-19. The most substantial changes were reported for life satisfaction, anxiety, and satisfaction with leisure, personal relationships, and vacations. General health, happiness, and satisfaction with income also declined during COVID-19 in comparison with pre-COVID-19 times. Overall, residents of compact neighborhoods reported lower well-being during COVID-19 compared to residents of lower-density neighborhoods. Important compact city characteristics - higher neighborhood density, reliance on public transport, smaller dwellings, and less green space - were negatively associated with well-being and health outcomes during COVID-19. In contrast, another compact city attribute, the presence of numerous local facilities, was positively linked to well-being and health during COVID-19. Based on these findings, the paper presents possible implications for sustainable urban planning and compact cities.

The resilience of neighbourhoods in the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: Urban planning and public health approaches

Purpose The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has impacted many aspects of city life. Within cities the incidence of infection withSARS-CoV-2 is heterogeneously distributed across districts. Passing a certain level of incidence leads to lockdownrestrictions for cities and some specific to city districts. The restrictions have resulted in an increased importance of theneighbourhood. The structure of urban neighbourhoods as well as their environmental quality varies;some neighbourhoodsmay be in a better position to weather a pandemic. Urban planning instruments and strategies can improve neighbourhoodspatial structure and environmental quality, and so increase resilience. Methods The aims of this project are to identify neighbourhoods that are vulnerable because of conditions that promotevirus spread as well as those that amplify the impact of lockdown restrictions and to examine the suitability of urbanplanning instruments and strategies to increase neighbourhood resilience. For a selection of German cities different types ofneighbourhoods were examined to assess likely risks as well as the potential adaptability of urban structures. Results Built environment and socio-economic as well as other health-related characteristics were selected based on ascientific literature review and the state of the art in planning practice. A set of criteria for these characteristics wasdeveloped which forms the basis of a stress test. Five case study neighbourhoods were assessed using the stress test toidentify areas where urban development instruments and strategies should be implemented. Conclusions: The next steps will be to assess the suitability of these instruments and strategies and a set of guidelines forurban planning and public health departments will be developed to support municipalities with increasing the resilience oftheir neighbourhoods.

COVID-19 and urban planning: Built environment, health, and well-being in Greek cities before and during the pandemic.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to dramatic changes in quality of life, bringing to the forefront of the debate the question of planning and design of pandemic-resilient cities. Using quasi-longitudinal survey data (via a social media campaign) and geospatial data from Greek cities, we evaluate changes in health and well-being during COVID-19 compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, and then explore in detail how specific built environment characteristics in Athens and Thessaloniki relate to health and well-being before and during COVID-19. Results suggest that overall health, life satisfaction, happiness, personal relationships satisfaction, leisure satisfaction, satisfaction with income, and satisfaction with vacations all decreased during COVID-19, while anxiety and back pain increased during COVID-19. The role of the urban built environment in health and well-being was found to differ considerably for the COVID-19 period compared to pre-COVID-19. Proximity to large parks, proximity to numerous local facilities, lower neighborhood density, living further from the city center, and living in a larger dwelling were associated with better health and well-being outcomes during COVID-19. Urban planning and relevant policies that cities adopt should carefully focus on mitigating implications for critical issues such as the quest for sustainable urban development and city forms.

COVID-19 street reallocation in mid-sized Canadian cities: socio-spatial equity patterns.

INTERVENTION: Street reallocation interventions in three Canadian mid-sized cities: Victoria (British Columbia), Kelowna (British Columbia), and Halifax (Nova Scotia) related to the COVID-19 pandemic. RESEARCH QUESTION: What street reallocation interventions were implemented, and what were the socio-spatial equity patterns? METHODS: We collected data on street reallocations (interventions that expand street space for active transportation or physical distancing) from April 1 to August 15, 2020 from websites and media. For each city, we summarized length of street reallocations (km) and described implementation strategies and communications. We assessed socio-spatial patterning of interventions by comparing differences in where interventions were implemented by area-level mobility, accessibility, and socio-demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Two themes motivated street reallocations: supporting mobility, recreation, and physical distancing in populous areas, and bolstering COVID-19 recovery for businesses. The scale of responses ranged across cities, from Halifax adding an additional 20% distance to their bicycle network to Kelowna closing only one main street section. Interventions were located in downtown cores, areas with high population density, higher use of active transportation, and close proximity to essential destinations. With respect to socio-demographics, interventions tended to be implemented in areas with fewer children and areas with fewer visible minority populations. In Victoria, the interventions were in areas with lower income populations and higher proportions of Indigenous people. CONCLUSION: In this early response phase, some cities acted swiftly even in the context of massive uncertainties. As cities move toward recovery and resilience, they should leverage early learnings as they act to create more permanent solutions that support safe and equitable mobility.

RéSUMé: INTERVENTION: Interventions de réaffectation de rues dans trois villes canadiennes de taille moyenne : Victoria (Colombie-Britannique), Kelowna (Colombie-Britannique) et Halifax (Nouvelle-Écosse) en lien avec la pandémie de COVID-19. QUESTION DE RECHERCHE: Quelles interventions de réaffectation de rues ont-elles été exécutées, et quelles ont été les tendances en matière d'équité socio-spatiale? MéTHODE: Nous avons collecté sur des sites Web et dans les médias des données sur la réaffectation de rues (les interventions ayant élargi l'espace viaire pour le transport actif ou la distanciation physique) entre le 1er avril et le 15 août 2020. Pour chaque ville, nous avons résumé la longueur des réaffectations de rues (en kilomètres) et décrit les stratégies de mise en œuvre et les communications. Nous avons évalué la structuration socio-spatiale des interventions en comparant les différences entre les endroits où les interventions ont été appliquées selon la mobilité, l'accessibilité et les caractéristiques sociodémographiques de la région. RéSULTATS: Deux éléments ont motivé la réaffectation de rues : la volonté de favoriser la mobilité, les loisirs et la distanciation physique dans les zones densément peuplées et la volonté de stimuler la reprise des affaires touchées par la COVID-19. L'envergure des interventions a varié d'une ville à l'autre; Halifax a allongé son réseau cyclable de 20 %, mais Kelowna n'a fermé qu'un seul tronçon de sa rue principale. Les interventions ont été faites dans les centres-villes et les zones à forte densité de population, à fort usage de transport actif et à proximité des destinations essentielles. En ce qui a trait aux caractéristiques sociodémographiques, les interventions ont eu tendance à être appliquées dans les zones avec moins d'enfants et moins de minorités visibles. À Victoria, les interventions ont été appliquées dans des zones de populations à faible revenu et à proportions élevées de personnes autochtones. CONCLUSION: À ce stade d'intervention précoce, certaines villes ont agi rapidement, même en présence d'incertitudes énormes. En s'engageant dans la voie de la reprise et de la résilience, les villes devraient tenir compte de leurs premières conclusions lorsqu'elles commencent à créer des solutions permanentes favorisant une mobilité sûre et équitable.