• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Sunday, August 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Mapping COVID risk in urban areas: a way to keep the economy open

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
March 26, 2021
in Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Researchers in India use GIS mapping to identify city neighborhoods at highest risk of a COVID outbreak–helping officials place targeted restrictions to avoid an economic shutdown

IMAGE

Credit: Study authors

As COVID-19 vaccines slowly roll out across the world, government officials in densely populated countries must still manage vulnerable communities at highest risk of an outbreak.

In a new study published in the Journal Risk Analysis, researchers in India propose a COVID Risk Assessment and Mapping (CRAM) framework that results in a zoned map that officials can use to place more targeted restrictions on high-risk communities. Successfully used by officials in Jaipur at the peak of the pandemic last spring, their framework could help other vulnerable countries avoid a shutdown of their regional economies.

Led by Shruti Kanga, associate professor in the Centre for Climate Change and Water Research at Suresh Gyan Vihar University, the team used satellite remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to conduct a spatial risk assessment of the city of Jaipur, located in the state of Rajashthan.

Jaipur had been experiencing a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases since the first cases of the virus were diagnosed in India in January 2020. Due to its high population density, the Jaipur area was subject to extended lockdowns. “It became imperative for the authorities to manage lockdowns without affecting the state’s economy,” the authors write.

The researchers developed CRAM to provide officials with a vulnerability assessment-based lockdown strategy. Their risk-mapping method involves three steps: 1. Generating GIS layers of administrative, hazard, socio-economic, and bio-physical data. 2. Integrating hazard and vulnerability to generate risk assessment. 3. Risk mapping using an area’s “boundary zones” for prioritizing risk areas and leading to prompt action. The final result is a GIS map of an area with color-coded risk zones delineating the neighborhoods at highest risk of a COVID outbreak.

CRAM generates a risk assessment by integrating hazard and vulnerability components associated with COVID. In the case of Jaipur, this data included these vulnerability risks: total population, population density, and availability of clean water for sanitation. Hazard risks included proximity to COVID “hotspots” (areas with a high density of confirmed positive cases) and land use/land cover–pinpointing high risk settlements and agriculture, where people gather and get exposed to the virus.

Data for each of these factors were used to create a GIS layer for the final map. GIS gives researchers the ability to layer unrelated data points on top of one another to reveal trends via visual maps. “Pandemics are a spatial phenomenon,” says Suraj Kumar Singh, a co-author and professor in the Centre for Sustainable Development at Suresh Gyan Vihar University. “Their spread and lethality can only be understood holistically using GIS tools.”

The researchers established five levels of “risk” zones: red, orange, blue, green, and pink (from highest to lowest risk). The level of risk was determined by multiplying hazard by vulnerability. The resulting color-coded map for Jaipur depicted significant spatial variation — indicating that most areas under high-risk red and orange zones were concentrated along the northeastern and southwestern zones of the study area.

After consulting with authorities managing COVID-19 in the area, the researchers listed specific guidelines for the areas under each risk category. For example, closing shops in red zones; allowing shops to be open three days a week in blue zones; and allowing shops to be open five days a week in green zones. “In Jaipur, our CRAM helped local authorities in deciding which areas to put under lockdown,” says Singh.

Highly populated countries of Asia–India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan– have been especially vulnerable to COVID-19 because of their poverty, population densities, and weak health care systems. Some parts of India are currently experiencing a second wave of COVID-19, including the state of Maharashtra, home to the bustling city of Mumbai. Singh suggests that the CRAM framework could be used in any densely populated area with high-risk communities.

“The CRAM framework can be applied anywhere in the world,” says Singh. “Researchers and decision-makers only need to change the parameters that are specific to that particular geographic region governing COVID-19 or any pandemic.”

###

About SRA

The Society for Risk Analysis is a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, scholarly, international society that provides an open forum for all those interested in risk analysis. SRA was established in 1980 and has published Risk Analysis: An International Journal, the leading scholarly journal in the field, continuously since 1981. For more information, visit http://www.sra.org.

Media Contact
Natalie Judd
[email protected]

Original Source

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/risa.13724

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/risa.13724

Tags: GeographyInfectious/Emerging DiseasesMedicine/HealthPopulation BiologyPublic HealthSocioeconomicsUrbanization
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Predicting Colorectal Cancer Using Lifestyle Factors

August 3, 2025
blank

Optical Matrix Multipliers Revolutionize Image Encoding and Decoding

August 3, 2025

Voltage Imaging Uncovers Hippocampal Memory Inhibition Dynamics

August 3, 2025

Predicting Glioma Response to Chemoradiation

August 3, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    60 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    49 shares
    Share 20 Tweet 12
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Study Reveals Beta-HPV Directly Causes Skin Cancer in Immunocompromised Individuals

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Predicting Colorectal Cancer Using Lifestyle Factors

Optical Matrix Multipliers Revolutionize Image Encoding and Decoding

Voltage Imaging Uncovers Hippocampal Memory Inhibition Dynamics

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.