Review of Associations between Built Environment Characteristics and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Risk

Jingjing Wang, Xueying Wu, Ruoyu Wang, Dongsheng He, Dongying Li, Linchuan Yang, Yiyang Yang and Yi Lu
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Jingjing Wang: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Xueying Wu: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Ruoyu Wang: Institute of Geography, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, UK
Dongsheng He: Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PX, UK
Dongying Li: Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Linchuan Yang: Department of Urban and Rural Planning, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
Yiyang Yang: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Yi Lu: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 999077, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-16

Abstract: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has stimulated intensive research interest in its transmission pathways and infection factors, e.g., socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, climatology, baseline health conditions or pre-existing diseases, and government policies. Meanwhile, some empirical studies suggested that built environment attributes may be associated with the transmission mechanism and infection risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, no review has been conducted to explore the effect of built environment characteristics on the infection risk. This research gap prevents government officials and urban planners from creating effective urban design guidelines to contain SARS-CoV-2 infections and face future pandemic challenges. This review summarizes evidence from 25 empirical studies and provides an overview of the effect of built environment on SARS-CoV-2 infection risk. Virus infection risk was positively associated with the density of commercial facilities, roads, and schools and with public transit accessibility, whereas it was negatively associated with the availability of green spaces. This review recommends several directions for future studies, namely using longitudinal research design and individual-level data, considering multilevel factors and extending to diversified geographic areas.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; built environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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