Vulnerability Assessment to COVID Pandemic in Urban Settlement: A Case Study from India

Shahab Fazal,Salma Sultana

doi:10.4236/cus.2022.101003

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created worldwide devastation in every sphere of human life. It has led to the economy slowing down and has aggravated life, health, and livelihood vulnerabilities. It spreads across the globe, penetrating indiscriminately through the cities of global north and south and has a greater urban orientation. The physical, social, economic and environmental circumstances determine the susceptibility of an individual, a community or the system to the impact of this pandemic. The degree of vulnerability of any community strongly influences management decisions. The concept of societal vulnerability to hazards involves demographic and socio-economic factors that reflect community resilience. This study employed secondary data drawn from different sources, to understand the vulnerability of Aligarh city (India) in the COVID-19 period, the study produced a comprehensive dataset about natural vulnerability, built-up vulnerability, social vulnerability and economic vulnerability. This study focuses to present a comparative analysis of ward-wise vulnerability in Aligarh city for the COVID-19 pandemic. The study designed proxy variables to measure and compare different levels of vulnerabilities in Aligarh city. The study presented to provide a tool for ward-wise planning and response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Aligarh city. The present study indicates that the vulnerability index is the outcome of the interaction between physical, built-up, social, and economic environment. These environmental conditions are interrelated and have some bearing on each other also.

Highlights

The present study indicates that the vulnerability index is the outcome of the interaction between physical, built-up, social, and economic environment
Ward-wise overall Vulnerability reveals that for Natural Vulnerability central and southern wards are more vulnerable to COVID-19 While for Built-up, central and eastern wards need attention (Table 6 and Figure 7)
Ward-wise overall vulnerability reveals that for Natural Vulnerability central and southern wards are more vulnerable to COVID-19, while for built-up, central and eastern wards need attention

Summary

Introduction

The SARS-COV-2 virus has its burst in one of the prominent urban centres of Wuhan China (Ogen, 2020) from where it has spread across the globe, penetrating indiscriminately through the cities of global north and south. This pandemic has greater urban orientation, UN-Habitat has underlined the urbancentric character of this infectious disease (UN-Habitat, 2020). It says, more than 1460 cities are affected by the pandemic in 210 countries and where above 95% of the total cases are located in urban areas. All denser settlements have proved to be most vulnerable, perhaps due to the lack of social distancing

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion