Investigation of the effects of urban density on Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Decisions regarding land use are amongst the most important decisions of a city planning process, and density arrangement is one of the key parameters for it. The effects of urban density on the Covid-19 infection are investigated in this study through the sample case of Iskenderun district, in which 3 different urban density areas are selected for this investigation (high, medium, low). The course of the Covid-19 pandemic was then followed through the number of cases in the period of September-December 2020 for these regions via a novel indicator Pandemic Index (PI). The case data were obtained from the "HES" application developed by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey to monitor the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the case density maps recorded in the application for this purpose were digitized through an in-house image processing software. As a result of the examination, it was understood that the high-density zone has higher values for Covid-19 "cases and contacts percentage" and "PI rating" (61 and 173 respectively), whereas for the low-density zone these values drop significantly (23 and 39, respectively). The results are indicative that the lack of urban land production and high population concentration, which have become important problems of developing countries and regions due to rapid population growth, are indeed strong factors for the spread of diseases, such as the Covid-19 pandemic.