Very high-resolution remote sensing-based mapping of urban residential districts to help combat COVID-19

Heli Lu; Ruimin Guan; Menglin Xia; Chuanrong Zhang; Changhong Miao; Yaopeng Ge; Xiaojing Wu

doi:10.1016/j.cities.2022.103696

Very high-resolution remote sensing-based mapping of urban residential districts to help combat COVID-19

Cities. 2022 Jul:126:103696. doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2022.103696. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Authors

Heli Lu^{1

2

3

4}, Ruimin Guan¹, Menglin Xia¹, Chuanrong Zhang⁵, Changhong Miao¹, Yaopeng Ge¹, Xiaojing Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Geography and Environmental Science, Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development, Collaborative Innovation Center on Yellow River Civilization of Henan Province, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.
² Key Laboratory of Geospatial Technology for the Middle and Lower Yellow River Regions (Henan University), Ministry of Education, National Demonstration Center for Environment and Planning, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.
³ Henan Key Laboratory of Earth System Observation and Modeling, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.
⁴ Henan Dabieshan National Field Observation and Research Station of Forest Ecosystem, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.
⁵ Department of Geography, Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-4148, USA.

Abstract

Urban residential districts (URDs) are a major element in the formation of cities that are essential for urban planning. Regarding the COVID-19 virus, which remains variable in aerosols for several hours, airborne transmission tends to occur in areas of poor ventilation and high occupant density. Thus, ventilation capacity is an important factor influencing airborne transmission in URDs, which should be evaluated as part of efforts to fight COVID-19 and guide healthy city planning and implementation. Here, we develop and test systematic methods to map URDs in a typical city in northern China and quantify their ventilation capacity using very high-resolution remote sensing images. Four fundamental spatial forms of URD are identified in the research area: the point-group form, parallel form, enclosed form, and hybrid form. Our analyses indicate that the integrated ventilation capacities for well-designed URDs are nearly twice those of poorly designed URDs. Large variations in ventilation capacity are also observed within URDs, with up to 13.42 times difference between the buildings. Therefore, very high-resolution remote sensing data are fundamental for extracting building height and generating precise spatial forms, which can improve the micro-scale URD ventilation planning for the prevention of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Healthy city planning; Urban residential district; Very high-resolution remote sensing images.