Application of remote sensing & GIS in COVID-19 pandemic

Dr Mukul Chandra Bora

(drmukulcbora@gmail.com)

&

Dr Niranjan Bora

Remote sensing may be defined as the art and science of making measurements of the earth using sensors on aeroplanes or satellites and sensors are used to collect data in the form of images and provide specialized capabilities for manipulating, analysing, and visualizing those images.

It is the technique through which the process of detecting and monitoring the physical characteristics of an area can be done with its reflected and emitted radiation at a distance (typically from satellite or aircraft) from the earth surface. Special cameras collect remotely sensed data which in turn helps us to "sense" things about the Earth. A few examples of the use of remote sensing are:

 Cameras on satellites and aeroplanes take images of large areas on the Earth's surface, allowing us to see much more than we can see when standing on the ground.

 Sonar systems on ships can be used to create images of the ocean floor without needing to travel to the bottom of the ocean.

 Cameras on satellites can be used to make images of temperature changes in the oceans.

Some specific uses of remotely sensed images of the Earth include:

 Large forest fires can be mapped from space, allowing rangers to see a much larger area than from the ground.

 Tracking clouds to help predict the weather or watch erupting volcanoes, and help to watch for dust storms.

 Tracking the growth of a city and changes in farmland or forests over several years or decades.

 Discovery and mapping of the rugged topography of the ocean floor (e.g., huge mountain ranges, deep canyons, and the "magnetic striping" on the ocean floor).

The term Geographic Information System (GIS) is hard to define and is an integration of many subject areas of science and technology and that is why there is no absolutely agreed definition of a GIS (deMers, 1997). A broadly accepted definition of GIS is the one provided by the National Centre of Geographic Information and Analysis:

A GIS is a system of hardware, software and procedures to facilitate the management, manipulation, analysis, modelling, representation and display of geo-referenced data to solve complex problems regarding planning and management of resources (NCGIA, 1990).

Geographic information systems have emerged in the last decade as an essential tool for urban and resource planning and management and of late used in the management of pandemics like COVID-19 around the globe. Their robustness of GIS to store, retrieve, analyse, model and map large areas with huge volumes of spatial data has led to an extraordinary proliferation of applications. Geographic information systems are now used for land use planning, utility management, ecosystems modelling, landscape assessment and planning, transportation and infrastructure planning, market analysis, visual impact analysis, facilities management, tax assessment, real estate analysis and many other applications. Functions of GIS include data entry, data display, data management, information retrieval and analysis.

Of late in 2019, COVID-19 has been revisited the whole world and is a part of the coronavirus family that causes a range of some familiar diseases from the common cold to SARS, and is usually termed as novel coronavirus. This virus spread from one person to another person through contact or through the air as aerosols. Due to the inherent capability of Geographic Information System can be used as one of the tools to locate the spreading of this virus with proper manipulation of geospatial information. It helps us to go for detailed studies with respect to diseases forecasting, prediction of outbreaks, and identification of disease clusters or hotspots and to evaluate different strategies to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Geospatial technologies have the capacity to rescue during crises and disasters by boosting relief and rehabilitation efforts. In the case of COVID-19 geospatial communities is proactive in tracking the spread of the virus and help to provide updated information about the number of people affected and provide real-time information company like ESRI, CSSE (JHU) which help to manage disaster mapping and help agencies with data gathering. GIS provide an ideal platform for the convergence of disease-specific information and their analyses in relation to population settlements, surrounding social and health services and the natural environment.

With the help of surveillance is a mechanism to collect and interpret data on the health of human populations, to accurately describe their health status with respect to specific diseases of concern. In general, surveillance is aimed at demonstrating the absence of disease or infection, determining the occurrence or distribution of disease or infection, while also detecting as early as possible exotic or emerging diseases. Human health surveillance is an essential tool to detect disease or infection, to monitor disease trends, to facilitate the control of disease or infection, to support claims for freedom from disease or infection, to provide data for use in risk analysis, for public health purposes, and to substantiate the rationale for sanitary measures. Human Disease Surveillance is a key for improving disease analysis, early warning and preventing the spread of diseases. Surveillance is used for the detection of new or exotic diseases while monitoring is aimed at detecting changes in established or endemic infection levels that may signal the recurrence of a disease outbreak.

Monitoring of the epidemiological patterns (human, place, time) of diseases and pathogens within populations provides a vital system for the identification of changes in disease status within this population (whether this relates to all humans worldwide, or those within a single country, region, cities or village). For this reason, most countries have systems that prevention is better than cure. Techniques such as human landscape monitoring, Spectrum monitoring tool, Hexagon dashboard and smart App.

COVID–19 is a pandemic and is experienced by the human population throughout the world and was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 and since then it is creating havoc amongst the human population. It has taken the lives of millions of people disrupting supply chains management and has brought the global economy to a standstill. Health ministry advisories and quarantine the infected, a lot of organizations are working on the ground to provide visualization of the affected areas along with real-time situational awareness. It can be prevented by frequent hand washing, covering the mouth and nose when sneezing and avoiding close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness. COVID-19 virus is mainly transmitted through droplets generated by an infected person with coughs, sneezes, or speaks and can spread by breathing if you are within 2 yards (6 ft) of a person who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated surface and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth before washing your hands. COVID-19 survives on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days and may vary under different conditions (e.g. type of surface, temperature or humidity of the environment).

GIS in Healthcare is being used to visualize disease foci, monitor newly infected or re-infected villages, and identify populations at risk, target cost-effective interventions, and monitor the eradication efforts and the visual display of spatial phenomena provides a very effective analytical tool to manage this type of Pandemic. Public Health is an important issue for healthcare professionals as the modern world has put pressure to re-evaluate the healthcare system to accommodate present and future health care needs. The GIS may be one of the powerful technological interventions in public health planning, potential disease prevention and outbreaks in combination with population distribution, land cover, location and capacity of the existing health care system. With the help of GIS, public health resources, specific diseases and other health issues can very nicely be mapped in relation to their surrounding environment and existing health and social infrastructures and all these information when mapped together leads to a powerful tool for monitoring and management of epidemics.

The regional, national and local-level maps of disease occurrence, prevalence, and mortality can be very well monitored by GIS and can be understood with the help of visualizing the map of the specified place. GIS may be used to create the density map of the population which may be used to get the information about the outbreak of the particular disease in each area at any time and may be incorporated in a real-time outbreak notification. GIS is the better tool for the study and application of the Global Early Warning System (GLEWS) that formally brings together human and veterinary public health systems to forecast the risk of disease outbreaks or epidemics.

Due to the inbuilt capacity of Geospatial data analysis with GIS, spatial factors like distance to the source of COVID-19 outbreak, population density, climate conditions, vegetation and landscape can be well ascertained to analyse the risk factors for the spread of the pandemic. The application of GIS is the most powerful technological intervention which has many important features which make it ideal for disease control and prevention due to its ability to store data related to demographic patterns and disease incidence on a geographical boundary and a variety of geospatial analyses. In the case of planning for the eradication of diseases, GIS has the great potential to perform efficiently to find high or low-risk areas for COVID-19 which depend on geographical features or conditions related to the geography. GIS in public health planning has the capability for potential disease prevention combining population distribution, land cover, location and capacity of existing health services. GIS software such as Arc GIS and Mapinfo provide the necessary tools that are appropriate for mapping and GIS will become the major game-changer in the field of biomedical sciences and will play a pivotal role in the field of healthcare planning and management. Health organizations can now visualize, analyse, interpret and display malfunctions, geo-location data through the use of GIS tools mapping applications and big data. In India, the Aarogya Setu apps are also one of the small applications of Geographic Information System which will help the healthcare system for the proper prevention and management of COVID-19. I am of the opinion that these Aarogya Setu Apps should be installed by each and every Indian if we are really serious about the prevention and control of COVID-19 or else our country may become a hub for coronavirus which in turn will finish the economy of the entire country. This is high time to take prevention to COVID-19 and otherwise, days are not far when we will become one of the poorest countries of the world. It is a pandemic and all of us should behave properly so that we can restore our Economy and the Education of our future generation.