Visualizing the spatial patterns of public responses towards a pandemic outbreak using internet search data

ABSTRACT

Based on a collection of daily Search Index data of symptom-, prevention- and recovery-related terms in Baidu, this study visualizes the spatial patterns of public responses towards the COVID-19 outbreak during the response and coexisting response and recovery phases. We find that provincial capitals and cities in China's Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions show a relatively high level of public responses in both phases. Furthermore, cities with similar past experiences show a high level of public responses in the response phase, suggesting that enhancing urban resilience is associated with the learning-by-doing process.