Pandemic and urban sustainability: Analyzing the COVID-19 scenario in Mumbai, India

ABSTRACT

The present study analyses the case of urban sustainability in Mumbai in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to identify the relationship between the existing sustainability issues and the spread of the pandemic across the administrative wards of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. It also tries to delve into the reasons behind the observed relationships to establish the patterns created by the COVID-19 pandemic in Mumbai by the end of August 2020. The study relies on secondary sources of data, that include reports published by government agencies, news articles, journals and websites. The study comprises a large amount of quantitative data that were analyzed using ArcGIS 10.4.1 and SPSS 23. The qualitative data collected through an extensive literature review was used alongside the quantitative data to support the study. The findings reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic had a varied impact across the wards of Mumbai, which was found to be associated with the unequal socio-economic conditions that prevail across the city. This inequality has contributed to Mumbai’s reduced resilience, for building which the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have to be achieved. © 2021, Russian Geographical Society. All rights reserved.