Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Home Range in a Suburban City in the Osaka Metropolitan Area

Haruka Kato, Atsushi Takizawa and Daisuke Matsushita
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Haruka Kato: Department of Housing and Environmental Design, Graduate School of Human Life Science, Osaka City University, Osaka 5588585, Japan
Atsushi Takizawa: Department of Housing and Environmental Design, Graduate School of Human Life Science, Osaka City University, Osaka 5588585, Japan
Daisuke Matsushita: Department of Housing and Environmental Design, Graduate School of Human Life Science, Osaka City University, Osaka 5588585, Japan

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-11

Abstract: This study aims to clarify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on home range. The home range is the area that individuals traverse in conducting their daily activities, such as working and shopping. In Japan, the central government declared the first state of emergency in April 2020. This study analyzed the panel data for mobile phone GPS location history from April 2019 to April 2020 in Ibaraki City, Osaka Metropolitan area. The study applied the minimum convex polygon method to analyze the data. The results show that the home range decreased significantly between April 2019 and April 2020. Specifically, the home range in 2020 decreased to approximately 50% of that in 2019 because of COVID-19 infection control measures, preventing people from traveling far from their homes and only allowing them to step outside for the bare minimum of daily activities and necessities. The results suggest that the emergency reduced people’s home ranges to the neighborhood scale. Therefore, it is necessary to consider designing new walkable neighborhood environments after the COVID-19 pandemic era.

Keywords: walkability; COVID-19 pandemic; home range; GPS location history data; minimum convex polygon; Osaka Metropolitan area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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