As of 13 July 2020, 12.9 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide. Prior studies have demonstrated that local socioeconomic and built environment characteristics may significantly ...contribute to viral transmission and incidence rates, thereby accounting for some of the spatial variation observed. Due to uncertainties, non-linearities, and multiple interaction effects observed in the associations between COVID-19 incidence and socioeconomic, infrastructural, and built environment characteristics, we present a structured multimethod approach for analysing cross-sectional incidence data within in an Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) framework at the NUTS3 (county) scale.
By sequentially conducting a geospatial analysis, an heuristic geographical interpretation, a Bayesian machine learning analysis, and parameterising a Generalised Additive Model (GAM), we assessed associations between incidence rates and 368 independent variables describing geographical patterns, socioeconomic risk factors, infrastructure, and features of the build environment. A spatial trend analysis and Local Indicators of Spatial Autocorrelation were used to characterise the geography of age-adjusted COVID-19 incidence rates across Germany, followed by iterative modelling using Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) to identify and measure candidate explanatory variables. Partial dependence plots were derived to quantify and contextualise BART model results, followed by the parameterisation of a GAM to assess correlations.
A strong south-to-north gradient of COVID-19 incidence was identified, facilitating an empirical classification of the study area into two epidemic subregions. All preliminary and final models indicated that location, densities of the built environment, and socioeconomic variables were important predictors of incidence rates in Germany. The top ten predictor variables' partial dependence exhibited multiple non-linearities in the relationships between key predictor variables and COVID-19 incidence rates. The BART, partial dependence, and GAM results indicate that the strongest predictors of COVID-19 incidence at the county scale were related to community interconnectedness, geographical location, transportation infrastructure, and labour market structure.
The multimethod ESDA approach provided unique insights into spatial and aspatial non-stationarities of COVID-19 incidence in Germany. BART and GAM modelling indicated that geographical configuration, built environment densities, socioeconomic characteristics, and infrastructure all exhibit associations with COVID-19 incidence in Germany when assessed at the county scale. The results suggest that measures to implement social distancing and reduce unnecessary travel may be important methods for reducing contagion, and the authors call for further research to investigate the observed associations to inform prevention and control policy.
Three-dimensional urban vegetation data provide crucial ecological information, but generally feature poor coverage and availability. The spaceborne radar interferometer TanDEM-X delivers a digital ...elevation model that can be processed to produce urban Canopy Height Models (CHMs), including vegetation height and area per 12-metre cell. To date, these CHMs are underutilised in urban research. This study therefore explores the potential of urban TanDEM-X CHM by combining an expert survey on potential directions for CHM in urban research and a case study conducting and integrating a CHM for climatological research in the city of Yazd, Iran. We complement these empirical analyses with a detailed literature section of the current state of application of TanDEM-X-CHM. The expert survey highlights key research directions and interests for urban CHM implementation. The case study provides an example of implementation based on findings from the expert survey, revealing effects of vegetation height and volume on land surface temperature. Our results underscore the unique characteristics of a TanDEM-X-based CHM, asserting their potential for producing three-dimensional vegetation information crucial for effective research and policy efforts in urban ecology.
High-risk cancer resection surgeries are increasingly being performed at fewer, more specialised, and higher-volume institutions across Canada. The resulting increase in travel time for patients to ...obtain treatment may be exacerbated by socioeconomic barriers to access. Focussing on five high-risk surgery types (oesophageal, ovarian/fallopian, liver, lung, and pancreatic cancers), this study examines socioeconomic trends in age-adjusted resection rates and travel time to surgery location for urban, suburban, and rural populations across Canada, excluding Québec, from 2004 to 2012. Significant differences in age-adjusted resection rates were observed between urban (14.9 per 100 000 person-years 95% CI: 12.2, 17.6), suburban (40.7 40.1, 41.2), and rural (32.7 29.6, 35.9) populations, with higher rates in suburban and rural areas throughout the study period for all cancer types. Resection rates did not differ between the highest (Q1) and lowest (Q5) socioeconomic strata (Q1: 13.3 12.2, 14.4; Q5: 12.0 10.7, 13.4), with significantly higher rates among middle-SES patients (Q2: 27.3 25.6, 29.0; Q3: 39.6 37.4, 41.8; Q4: 37.5 35.3, 39.7). Travel times to treatment were consistently higher among the most socioeconomically deprived patients, most notably in suburban and rural areas. The results suggest that the conventional inclusion of suburbs with urban areas in health research may obfuscate important trends for public health policy and programmes.
The richness of social and cultural theory in the humanities offers countless opportunities for using theory-informed concepts in data-based analysis workflows. The contributors to this volume thus ...encourage further research utilizing out-of-the-box models and approaches to space and place in the field of Digital Humanities. The collection follows the two complementary goals of providing promising conceptualisations of space and place for a broad audience from Digital Humanities, and of presenting current work in Digital Humanities using different conceptualisations of space and place or offering innovative methods for their analysis.
This study explores both epidemiological and spatial characteristics of domestic and community interpersonal violence. We evaluated three years of violent trauma data in the medium-sized city of ...Campina Grande in North-Eastern Brazil. 3559 medical and police records were analysed and 2563 cases were included to identify socioeconomic and geographic patterns. The associations between sociodemographic, temporal, and incident characteristics and domestic violence were evaluated using logistic regression. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), we mapped victims' household addresses to identify spatial patterns. We observed a higher incidence of domestic violence among female, divorced, or co-habitant persons when the violent event was perpetrated by males. There was only a minor chance of occurrence of domestic violence involving firearms. 8 out of 10 victims of domestic violence were women and the female/male ratio was 3.3 times greater than that of community violence (violence not occurring in the home). Unmarried couples were twice as likely to have a victim in the family unit (OR = 2.03), compared to married couples. Seven geographical hotspots were identified. The greatest density of hotspots was found in the East side of the study area and was spatially coincident with the lowest average family income. Aggressor sex, marital status, and mechanism of injury were most associated with domestic violence, and low-income neighbourhoods were coincident with both domestic and non-domestic violence hotspots. These results provide further evidence that economic poverty may play a significant role in interpersonal, and particularly domestic violence.
Knowledge and experiences of violence transform the ways in which individuals perceive the urban landscape, construct and reproduce (un)safety, and make everyday decisions regarding mobility and the ...use of space. This knowledge and these experiences are placially anchored and are shaped by everyday regionalisations. In the context of interpersonal violence in Recife, Brazil, we examine the ways in which volunteered geographic information (VGI), formal and informal information exchange networks, and individual experience contribute to the reproduction of violent spaces. During interviews with civilian residents and police officers, we explore the knowledge and information flows and their spatial anchorings before and after presenting informants with a VGI-based map of firearms violence. Following coding, interviews were also analysed using a novel, semiautomated text mining algorithm to produce context-sensitive co-occurrence graphs of key arguments within participant narratives. The results indicate strong differences in the placial anchorings between police officers and civilians, and highlight key dynamics in the flows of VGI amongst residents and local news organisations, as well as through social media. These forms of placial knowledge exchange are in constant negotiation with individuals’ perceptions and experiences of the study area and reflect cognitive-discursive reproductions of everyday geographies of (un)safety.
Land use planning as strategic instruments to guide urban dynamics faces particular challenges in the Global South, including Sub-Saharan Africa, where urgent interventions are required to improve ...urban and environmental sustainability. This study investigated and identified key challenges of land use planning and its environmental assessments to improve the urban and environmental sustainability of city-regions. In doing so, we combined expert interviews and questionnaires with spatial analyses of urban and regional land use plans, as well as current and future urban land cover maps derived from Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing. By overlaying and contrasting land use plans and land cover maps, we investigated spatial inconsistencies between urban and regional plans and the associated urban land dynamics and used expert surveys to identify the causes of such inconsistencies. We furthermore identified and interrogated key challenges facing land use planning, including its environmental assessment procedures, and explored means for overcoming these barriers to rapid, yet environmentally sound urban growth. The results illuminated multiple inconsistencies (e.g., spatial conflicts) between urban and regional plans, most prominently stemming from conflicts in administrative boundaries and a lack of interdepartmental coordination. Key findings identified a lack of Strategic Environmental Assessment and inadequate implementation of land use plans caused by e.g., insufficient funding, lack of political will, political interference, corruption as challenges facing land use planning strategies for urban and environmental sustainability. The baseline information provided in this study is crucial to improve strategic planning and urban/environmental sustainability of city-regions in Sub-Saharan Africa and across the Global South, where land use planning faces similar challenges to address haphazard urban expansion patterns.
Injury is a truly global health issue that has enormous societal and economic consequences in all countries. Interpersonal violence is now widely recognized as important global public health issues ...that can be addressed through evidence-based interventions. In South Africa, as in many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), a lack of ongoing, systematic injury surveillance has limited the ability to characterize the burden of violence-related injury and to develop prevention programmes.
To describe the profile of trauma presenting to the trauma centre of Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa - relating to interpersonal violence, using data collected from a newly implemented surveillance system. Particular emphasis was placed on temporal aspects of injury epidemiology, as well as age and sex differentiation.
Data were collected prospectively using a standardized trauma admissions form for all patients presenting to the trauma centre. An epidemiological analysis was conducted on 16 months of data collected from June 2010 to October 2011.
A total of 8445 patients were included in the analysis, in which the majority were violence-related. Specifically, 35% of records included violent trauma and, of those, 75% of victims were male. There was a clear temporal pattern: a greater proportion of intentional injuries occur during the night, while unintentional injury peaks late in the afternoon. In total, two-third of all intentional trauma is inflicted on the weekends, as is 60% of unintentional trauma. Where alcohol was recorded in the record, 72% of cases involved intentional injury. Sex was again a key factor as over 80% of all records involving alcohol or substance abuse were associated with males. The findings highlighted the association between violence, young males, substance use, and weekends.
This study provides the basis for evidence-based interventions to reduce the burden of intentional injury. Furthermore, it demonstrates the value of locally appropriate, ongoing, systematic public health surveillance in LMIC.
Homicide presents a significant health burden globally, but geographical differences in homicide rates necessitate focussed analyses of spatial and temporal patterns, particularly in affected areas. ...The highest rates are concentrated in regions in Central and South America, but analyses of sub-regional patterns and sex-specific differences may yield important information for addressing the upstream causes of homicide at the community level.
This study examines and presents spatial and temporal patterns of homicide victims from 2006 to 2015 in the state of Alagoas, Brazil, focussing on the municipality scale and differentiated by victims' sex.
Data comprising victims' age, sex, the date, time, and the municipality of the homicide incident were acquired from the Brazilian National Mortality Information System. These data were aggregated by municipality, and we made quantitative comparisons of sex-specific homicide rates between the capital city of Macieó metropolitan region and the peripheral, predominantly rural regions. Empirical Local Bayes methods were used to adjust per-capita homicide risk estimates and map the results.
A total of 19,560 homicides occurred during the study period, with an average of 60.4 per 100,000 inhabitants; the metropolitan region rate was 81.8, compared to 46.5 for the remaining regions. The male homicide rate was 115.9 per 100,000, compared to 7.1 for females. Empirical Local Bayes mapping showed strong clustering of male homicide risk in specific cities near the capital, while female risk was more dispersed throughout the region.
The risk of male victim homicide observed for the metropolitan region of Alagoas was amongst the highest globally, particularly during the period 2012-2014. Geographical differences in male and female risk may indicate differences in risk factors and highlight a need for prevention programmes that take into account gender-specific pathways of violence.
Abstract Purpose To map the geographical distribution and spatial clustering of depressive symptoms cases in an area of Lima, Peru. Methods Presence of depressive symptoms suggesting a major ...depressive episode was assessed using a short version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Data were obtained from a census conducted in 2010. One participant per selected household (aged 18 years and above, living more than 6 months in the area) was included. Residence latitude, longitude, and elevation were captured using a GPS device. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was estimated, and relative risks (RRs) were calculated to identify areas of significantly higher and lower geographical concentrations of depressive symptoms. Results Data from 7946 participants, 28.3% male, mean age 39.4 (SD, 13.9) years, were analyzed. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 17.0% (95% confidence interval = 16.2%–17.8%). Three clusters with high prevalence of depressive symptoms (primary cluster: RR = 1.82; P = .003 and secondary: RR = 2.83; P = .004 and RR = 5.92; P = .01), and two clusters with significantly low prevalence (primary: RR = 0.23; P = .016 and secondary: RR = 0; P = .035), were identified. Further adjustment by potential confounders confirmed the high prevalence clusters but also identified newer ones. Conclusions Screening strategies for depression, in combination with mapping techniques, may be useful tools to target interventions in resource-limited areas.
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