Web app visualizes intersection of COVID, government policies and mobility
Connecting state and local government leaders
Researchers at the University of Miami have developed an interactive web application that illustrates how pandemic-related policies affected the movement of people.
To better understand the relationships between human mobility, government policies and cases of COVID-19, researchers at the University of Miami have developed an interactive web application that illustrates how pandemic-related policies affected the movement of people.
The app was built with data from three independent sources: Apple Maps, which provides data on human movement via walking, driving and public transportation; Oxford University’s COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, which provides data on government policies implemented during the pandemic; and global cases of COVID-19 gathered by Johns Hopkins University. Users can select a specific state or county in the U.S. – or another country -- and see how mobility and COVID-19 cases changed over time or in response to government policies or social circumstances.
“The web application produces interesting visualizations that can reveal fascinating trends specific to a given area that might otherwise not be recognized,” Shouraseni Sen Roy, a professor in the Department of Geography and Sustainable Development, told U Miami News.
For example, the application shows a spike in human mobility in New Orleans at the end of February 2020, which coincided with Mardi Gras celebrations. A month later, there was a corresponding spike in COVID-19 cases.
Although the application is specific to the pandemic, the framework could be easily modified to create a similar application for natural disasters -- as long as appropriate datasets are available, Roy said.
“At a macro level, understanding movement patterns of people can help influence decision-making for higher-level policies, like social gathering restrictions, mask recommendations and tracking and tracing the spread of infectious diseases,” she said. “At a local level, understanding the movement of people can lead to more specific decisions, like where to set up testing sites or vaccination sites.”
The full study is available online.