Evaluation of Vulnerability Status of the Infection Risk to COVID-19 Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA): A Case Study of Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

Hizkel Asfaw, Shankar Karuppannan, Tilahun Erduno, Hussein Almohamad, Ahmed Abdullah Al Dughairi, Motrih Al-Mutiry and Hazem Ghassan Abdo
Additional contact information
Hizkel Asfaw: Department of Geomatics Engineering, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama P.O. Box 1888, Ethiopia
Shankar Karuppannan: Department of Applied Geology, School of Applied Natural Science, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama P.O. Box 1888, Ethiopia
Tilahun Erduno: Department of Geomatics Engineering, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama P.O. Box 1888, Ethiopia
Hussein Almohamad: Department of Geography, College of Arabic Language and Social Studies, Qassim University, Burayda 51452, Saudi Arabia
Ahmed Abdullah Al Dughairi: Department of Geography, College of Arabic Language and Social Studies, Qassim University, Burayda 51452, Saudi Arabia
Motrih Al-Mutiry: Department of Geography, College of Arts, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia
Hazem Ghassan Abdo: Geography Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Tartous, Tartous P.O. Box 2147, Syria

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-17

Abstract: COVID-19 is a disease caused by a new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 and is an accidental global public health threat. Because of this, WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. The pandemic is spreading unprecedently in Addis Ababa, which results in extraordinary logistical and management challenges in response to the novel coronavirus in the city. Thus, management strategies and resource allocation need to be vulnerability-oriented. Though various studies have been carried out on COVID-19, only a few studies have been conducted on vulnerability from a geospatial/location-based perspective but at a wider spatial resolution. This puts the results of those studies under question while their findings are projected to the finer spatial resolution. To overcome such problems, the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) has been developed as a framework to evaluate and map the susceptibility status of the infection risk to COVID-19. To achieve the objective of the study, data like land use, population density, and distance from roads, hospitals, bus stations, the bank, markets, COVID-19 cases, health care units, and government offices are used. The weighted overlay method was used; to evaluate and map the susceptibility status of the infection risk to COVID-19. The result revealed that out of the total study area, 32.62% (169.91 km 2 ) falls under the low vulnerable category (1), and the area covering 40.9% (213.04 km 2 ) under the moderate vulnerable class (2) for infection risk of COVID-19. The highly vulnerable category (3) covers an area of 25.31% (132.85 km 2 ), and the remaining 1.17% (6.12 km 2 ) is under an extremely high vulnerable class (4). Thus, these priority areas could address pandemic control mechanisms like disinfection regularly. Health sector professionals, local authorities, the scientific community, and the general public will benefit from the study as a tool to better understand pandemic transmission centers and identify areas where more protective measures and response actions are needed at a finer spatial resolution.

Keywords: COVID-19; GIS; MCDA; proximity analysis; weighted overlay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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