\u201cWhat should be computed\u201d for supporting post-pandemic recovery policymaking? A life-oriented perspective

Junyi Zhang,Tao Feng,Runsen Zhang,Taoxing Zhu,Jing Kang,Shuangjin Li,Hongxiang Ding,Rui Liu,Baoxin Zhai,Shuang Ma

doi:10.1007/s43762-021-00025-8

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused various impacts on people’s lives, while changes in people’s lives have shown mixed effects on mitigating the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Understanding how to capture such two-way interactions is crucial, not only to control the pandemic but also to support post-pandemic urban recovery policies. As suggested by the life-oriented approach, the above interactions exist with respect to a variety of life domains, which form a complex behavior system. Through a review of the literature, this paper first points out inconsistent evidence about behavioral factors affecting the spread of COVID-19, and then argues that existing studies on the impacts of COVID-19 on people’s lives have ignored behavioral co-changes in multiple life domains. Furthermore, selected uncertain trends of people’s lives for the post-pandemic recovery are described. Finally, this paper concludes with a summary about “what should be computed?” in Computational Urban Science with respect to how to catch up with delays in the SDGs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, how to address digital divides and dilemmas of e-society, how to capture behavioral co-changes during the post-pandemic recovery process, and how to better manage post-pandemic recovery policymaking processes.

Highlights

After the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020, the pandemic has caused more than 198,000,000 cumulative cases and more than 4,200,000 deaths across the whole world (Worldometers, 2021)
2.5 Summary It is difficult to deny that the above-revealed various inconsistencies have worsened the trust of policymakers in scientific evidence, as often observed in key politicians’ public speeches, which led to inconsistent COVID-19 policymaking across countries of the whole world
Even though better risk communications between scientists and politicians can enhance the trust of politicians in scientific evidence, in reality, the COVID-19 pandemic has been addressed “primarily in terms of political regulation and concerns and only marginally as a scientific matter” (Crabu et al, 2021)

Summary

Introduction

After the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020, the pandemic has caused more than 198,000,000 cumulative cases and more than 4,200,000 deaths across the whole world (Worldometers, 2021). People’s lifestyles during the COVID-19 pandemic have been largely affected by government policy measures and individuals’ risk perceptions, which affected how people adjusted their daily life needs and subsequent activity-travel schedules and behaviors (Zhang, 2021a; Ding and Zhang, 2021).

Results

Conclusion