Abstract
With the outbreak of a novel respiratory coronavirus disease (COVID-19) over the world, restriction of human mobility plays an important role to reduce the potential for the spread of virus. People are restricted for limited activities in local communities where the built environment in communities serve as a mediated pathway for the virus transmission. Our study aims to examine to what extent built environment factors explain COVID-19 transmission at the community level. Drawing on primary data collected from 648 communities in Wuhan, China, we employed a geographically weighted regression and a 3D mapping approach to examine the relationship between COVID-19 confirmed cases and three built environment factors including green coverage, property price, and underground parking. We find that green coverage and property price explain COVID-19 transmission better in communities with a larger amount of confirmed cases
Highlights
A novel coronavirus disease, called COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1], was monitored and reported in December 2019 by Chinese health authorities
Drawing on primary data collected from 648 communities in Wuhan, China, we employed a geographically weighted regression and a 3D mapping approach to examine the relationship between COVID-19 confirmed cases and three built environment factors including green coverage, property price, and underground parking
In concert with the findings revealed by Ordinary Least Square (OLS), we further find that larger green coverage reduces the likelihood of COVID-19 transmission, perhaps by offering more outdoor space and facilitating social distancing, whereas less underground parking lots create more compact indoor space, increasing the possibilities of COVID-19 transmission
Summary
A novel coronavirus disease, called COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1], was monitored and reported in December 2019 by Chinese health authorities. Studies have recognized that BE factors have the great potential to prevent infectious spread by affecting connectance and exposure of people to common space and configurations [4], such as street walkability, green coverage and housing density that have been widely studied as parts of the theorized 3D factors (design, density, and diversity) [5] Such examinations of BE factors are important to lockdown cities like Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province in Central China where the earliest closure policy was implemented, and citizens have been strictly restricted in their local communities (Xiaoqu in Chinese) since January 23rd, 2020. The values of SR are further categorized to the associative level of high (1.5) which are mapped out horizontally in a 3D visualization, coupling with the confirmed COVID-19 cases heightened vertically
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