Routine, accurate maps of slums, informal settlements, and other deprived urban areas in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are essential to ensure relevant COVID-19 prevention advice, food relief, and COVID-19 treatment to the estimated one billion residents living in such areas. However, most LMIC cities do not yet have operational spatial data systems. Spatial data are urgently required to locate deprived urban areas and support COVID-19 responses by local authorities and civil society organizations. As economies reopen, deprived area maps will require help to manage COVID-19 outbreaks while ensuring local access to health care, food and basic necessities. The identification of open spaces and community facilities are important for developing isolation units within and near communities.
To create maps that support COVID-19 responses and recovery, the global GEO community can support local governments to develop spatial databases of characteristics that define deprived urban settlements. It is important that spatial databases not only focus on physical building characteristics but capture area-based deprivation characteristics. Response and recovery to COVID-19 might differ in areas where residents face imminent eviction, lack of water and sanitation facilities, limited access to basic health care, face regular flooding, lack protection against crime, and a host of other issues that increase risk of infection and undermine food security. Examples datasets include densities (built-up area and population), socio-economic conditions (e.g., police response times, land zoning restrictions, type of employment), environmental conditions (e.g., open sewers, multiple hazard risk, availability of open spaces) and infrastructure/facilities (e.g., health centres, schools).
Below are a number of spatial data sources with possible relevance to COVID-19 responses in data-poor environments.
Million Neighborhoods https://millionneighborhoods.org
TEP Urban platform https://urban-tep.eu/#!
Global Human Settlement Layer https://ghsl.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ .
WorldPop https://www.worldpop.org/
GRID3 https://grid3.org/resources/data
SEDAC https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/mapping/popest/covid-19/
Open cities project https://opencitiesproject.org/about/
OpenStreetMap https://www.openstreetmap.org/
Global elevation model https://www.usgs.gov (full link here)
Missing Maps https://mapswipe.org/data.html
Digital Globe https://www.digitalglobe.com/ecosystem/open-data/covid19
