2.4 MONITORING OF COVID-19 USING GEOPORTALS

2.4 MONITORING OF COVID-19 USING GEOPORTALS

The rapid spread of the new coronavirus, which has a high rate of contagion, driven by the

large circulation of people globally through harbors and airports, ensured a geographical

dimension different from that experienced in other pandemics. The few months that

separate the detection of Sars-Cov-2 in December 2019 in China, until the pandemic decree

by WHO in March 2020, was accompanied by a series of initiatives to monitor the evolution

of the disease in space and in time, being one of the best known on a global level the Johns

Hopkins University (JHU) (2020) initiative, named COVID-19 Dashboard, which already has

more than 1.6 billion unique accesses (MundoGEO, 2020b) and provides information on

the evolution of the disease in real-time.

The tool presents various information about the evolution of the pandemic, such as active

and accumulated cases, deaths, and recoveries in 191 countries and regions of the world.

Also, in January 2020, data were collected and processed manually (Dong et al., 2020), with

the need to make the tool more automated with the development of the disease. In

addition, to provide transparency to the general population, authorities, and researchers

regarding the pandemic’s evolution, the initiative makes available for downloading the

data used to feed the dashboard in a repository.

On these initiatives to monitor the evolution of the pandemic in space in real-time, Silva

(2020, ¶ 2) points out that:

(...) they are extremely important to inform the population about the contagion of

the disease, whether at the local, regional or global level. Thus, it is possible to verify

both the evolution of contagion and the occurrence of deaths resulting from

infection by COVID-19. Reading and interpreting this scenario provides support for

decision making at the government level, such as the adoption of restrictive

measures and social isolation8.

8 The original text was translated from Portuguese by the author and can be read at https://mundogeo.com/2020/04/08/artigo-geotecnologias-na-identificacao-de-impactos-sociais-devido-acovid-19/. Retrieved November 11, 2020.

Observing this large volume of information being produced daily, from several different

locations, it can be noticed the problem of processing the information obtained and the

integration of different databases. In this regard, it is possible to state that many

monitoring platforms of COVID-19 need to work with information from the perspective of

spatial big data. Thus, in Figure 7, it is possible to observe some challenges related to the

use of GIS with big data from a space-time perspective.

Figure 7. Challenges in spatiotemporal analysis using GIS. Adapted from Zhou et al. (2020)

In the ten challenges presented, it is possible to highlight some points raised by the authors,

such as the integration of bases from different sources produced in different contexts,

scales, and spatial references. Furthermore, the short time for updating information and

developing applications, given the rapid development of the pandemic and taking into

account that they need to be friendly to the general public and present large volumes of

data on multiple scales (continents, countries, regions, counties, cities, etc.). This

information is extremely relevant to recognize the path and speed of the spread of the

disease and to make predictions of how it will behave in the future and in different

contexts. Finally, this perspective on mental health and feelings related to the pandemic is

relevant in the context of GIS, considering that humanity experienced an unexpected

health emergency (at least, for a large portion of the population), generating an

unprecedented level of uncertainty, which can be perceived in different ways depending

on the context and location.

There are initiatives by different social segments in Brazil in the online mapping of COVID-

19 in space and time. As the country has continental dimensions and is divided into

federations (states), the number of COVID-19 mapping initiatives is quite extensive, being

developed by universities, public and private institutions, state governments and city halls,

NGOs, among others. As a very heterogeneous country, the spread of COVID-19 was felt in

different ways in each region.

Thus, with the focus of the present study being Rio de Janeiro, Figure 8 below shows some

initiatives that have been developed to tackle the COVID-19 situation. The number of

portals for mapping the disease is not intended to be exhaustive, only to present the main

initiatives that reach the municipal level of Rio de Janeiro or that were developed

specifically for the city. The figure lists the main approaches related to COVID-19 and how

spatial information is presented.

Site Name Particular Subject Region

Spatial Information

Ideia Big Data

Covid por CEP – Rio de Janeiro

Observatório COVID-19 BR

Painel Rio COVID-19

MonitoraCovid -19

Portal GEOCOVID-19 Brasil

COVID-19 Analytics

O IBGE apoiando o combate à COVID-19 Analysis of COVID19 and its impact on politics, behavior, among others COVID-19 active cases and deaths according to postal code Provides information on COVID-19 cases, deaths, contagion dynamics, occupation of the hospital network, among others Provides information on confirmed cases, recoveries, deaths and active cases of COVID-19, among others Daily cases, accumulated cases, deaths, combat measures, statistical analysis, among others COVID-19 cases and deaths, projections, isolation, and reports

Pandemic-related statistics and forecasting models

Data and statistics related to the pandemic, such as unemployment rate, impacts on the health network. Brazil and the World There are maps to illustrate some analyzes, but it is not a mapping platform

Rio de Janeiro Geoportal

Brazil, states, and municipalities Depending on the subject there are thematic maps to represent the data

Rio de Janeiro Geoportal

Brazil, states, and municipalities

Brazil, states, and municipalities

Brazil

Brazil, states, and municipalities There are interactive maps depending on the theme, but it is not a geoportal

Geoportal

There are maps to illustrate some analyzes, but it is not a mapping platform

Website that collects a variety of information. There are links to interactive maps.

Developers

Private company (IDEIA)

Independent initiative based on official data

Independent initiative by several researchers

Rio de Janeiro City Hall

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ)

Interinstitutional network initiative

Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUCRJ) and others

Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)

Link

https://ideiabigdata.com/covid19/

https://covidporcep.rio.br/

https://covid19br.github.io

https://experience.arcgis.com/exp erience/38efc69787a346959c9315 68bd9e2cc4

https://bigdatacovid19.icict.fiocruz.br

http://covid.mapbiomas.org

https://covid19analytics.com.br

https://covid19.ibge.gov.br

Coronavírus Brasil Data and statistics on daily and accumulated cases, recoveries, deaths, among others Brazil, regions, states, and municipalities There are interactive maps, but it is not a geoportal Ministry of Health https://covid.saude.gov.br

Figure 8. Mapping initiatives related to COVID-19. Prepared by the author based on geoportals information.

Retrieved November 8, 2020.