Cartographic methodologies for epidemic monitoring, prevention and recovery

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed limitations of public policies in their capacity to act in face of a sanitary crisis with differentiated impacts according to strata and segments of the population (RIBEIRO et al., 2021; LabCidade, 2021 [2]). During this period, the strategies adopted (such as social isolation) were established in a centralized and homogeneous way, without paying attention to territorial specificities. Since April 2020, LabCidade has developed critical spatial readings of the pandemic, exploring hypotheses of how the spatial dissemination of COVID-19 is related to urban dynamics and conditions in the city of São Paulo. We work with a multiscale and intersectorial perspective, visualizing the incidence of the virus in time and space and configuring a methodology that is more capable of establishing actions in different contexts (LabCidade, 2020 [3]). The knowledge accumulated from this experience is relevant for the prevention and confrontation of pandemics in the future, as well as for the elaboration and monitoring of post-pandemic recovery policies as well as the design of public policies in general, as the lack of a territorialized reading, able to dialogue with the population the policy is aimed at, is a problem that is not restricted to health emergencies. This project proposes to develop a methodology for territorialized reading of the spread and impacts of the pandemic in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, using data visualization tools and readings that provide public managers and community organizations with safe tools to plan territorialized actions, adherent to local specificities. (AU)