Evaluating COVID-19 transmission in cities: The COVID-19 City Disaster Vulnerability Index
Organizer: World Bank
| Most governments around the world continue to grapple with containing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and determining appropriate measures to keep economies running with minimum costs to health systems and livelihoods. As with disaster risk, one thing we are learning is that really understanding the spread of the virus at a more granular level can help decision-makers address some of their critical challenges. This session will highlight two key, geospatial, analytical tools, related to Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Covid-19 response, developed for the Latin American and Caribbean region. First, the City Disaster Vulnerability Index, aims to provide city policy- and decision-makers with high-quality information related to the spatial understanding of vulnerability applicable to Urban/DRM and territorial planning that could be extended to COVID-19 response activities as well. A combination of sub-city data has been developed for selected key cities in the region to support identifying potential hotspots for COVID-19 transmission as well as response and economic recovery options to support the most vulnerable people and business sectors. The second tool shows the current state of the pandemic at the subnational level within the Latin America and Caribbean region. It looks at five different metrics: 1. Active cases; 2. Seven-day cases per 100,000 people; 3. Seven-day cases per 100,000 people normalized by testing; 4. Cumulative cases; and 5. Deaths. This tool can be used to obtain unique insights into the evolution of the pandemic; determine the relative effectiveness of lockdown measures; identify hotspots of transmission and more. Join us to learn more and provide feedback on how this tool can be used to support governments worldwide. |
Speakers:
Rashmin Gunasekera, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank
James Daniell, Senior Natural Hazards Risk Engineer
Antonios Pomonis, Senior Structural Engineer