ProOverview
The unprecedented crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted governments worldwide to take extraordinary methods to contain the spread of the virus: lockdown, test and trace, movement restrictions, etc. Law enforcement bodies continue to require new and adapted processes and systems to handle the ‘new normal.’
Challenge
Monitoring foot traffic can be crucial for pandemic planning, as high traffic areas will likely be more dangerous and may require stricter monitoring or quarantine measures. Identifying these areas, however, can be tricky, beyond easily spotted commercial districts. This challenge could be easily addressed by location intelligence tools.
Our solution
Aspectum created an interactive map that displays human mobility patterns during the pandemic in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), combined with the location data of buildings that can be filtered by residential, commercial, civil, and other building types. We also added the location data of ambulance stations and pharmacies across the city. It’s easy to specify these parameters using our built-in widgets.
We then aggregated the mobility data and separated the city into quadrants, which we distinguished by color warmth – warm to cold – to identify high traffic areas. Combining this with the location data of emergency points and pharmacies, valuable insights become immediately available for the urban mobility and planning companies together with government and healthcare bodies that curate health monitoring programs during pandemic.
Results
The map clearly shows that the highest traffic can be traced precisely to the city center, as it has the largest concentration of commercial real estate. It’s easy enough to conclude that these areas are at risk of a faster virus spread due to the increased population density. In residential areas, by contrast, the number of high-traffic routes is much lower. Taking into account this information, Victoria’s local government should implement stricter quarantine measures in the city center where the majority of commercial real estate is located.
Further layers with ambulance stations and pharmacies location data give us a better understanding of how the population is potentially provided with medical care during the pandemic. The majority of high traffic areas are indeed covered with all relevant healthcare infrastructure, however, the northern part of the city lacks such facilities.
Value for
Governmental healthcare departments, hospitals of all levels, NGOs, healthcare and urban planning consultants
Key Technical Features
- Advanced Data Processing
- Categorical Filtering
- 3D Visualization
- Big Data