Why Italy First? Health, Geographical and Planning Aspects of the COVID-19 Outbreak
Sustainability
Abstract and Figures
COVID-19 hit Italy in February 2020 after its outbreak in China at the beginning of January. Why was Italy first among the Western countries? What are the conditions that made Italy more vulnerable and the first target of this disease? What characteristics and diffusion patterns could be highlighted and hypothesized from its outbreak to the end of March 2020, after containment measures, including a national lockdown, were introduced? In this paper, we try to provide some answers to these questions, analyzing the issue from medical, geographical and planning points of view. With reference to the Italian case, we observed the phenomenon in terms of the spatial diffusion process and by observing the relation between the epidemic and various environmental elements. In particular, we started from a hypothesis of the comparable economic, geographical, climatic and environmental conditions of the areas of Wuhan (in the Hubei Province in China, where the epidemic broke out) and the Po Valley area (in Italy) where most cases and deaths were registered. Via an ecological approach, we compared the spatial distribution and pattern of COVID-19-related mortality in Italy with several geographical, environmental and socio-economic variables at a Provincial level, analyzing them by means of spatial analytical techniques such as LISA (Local Indicators of Spatial Association). Possible evidence arose relating to COVID-19 cases and Nitrogen-related pollutants and land take, particularly in the Po Valley area.
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... We believe that Italian adolescents represent a good sample of analysis as Italy was the first European nation, after the Southeastern Asian countries, to face a significant pandemic outbreak, especially in its early stages. It was the first country outside China to impose lockdown measures and became the global epicenter for both infections and deaths (Murgante et al., 2020). The crisis emerged in a country already struggling with preexisting vulnerabilities, particularly within its political and institutional systems (Vicentini and Galanti, 2022), and was closely linked to broader issues of public trust. ...
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campaign strategy flowchart. Our findings add to the expanding body of research on public awareness and
participation in MSWM, emphasizing the critical role that waste management authorities can play in fostering
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... The increasing demand for energy generated from renewable sources, as part of strategies for energetic transition, and concerns regarding land competition among energy production and food production [15], loss of agricultural land, biodiversity, and landscape transformation result in the need for integrated perspectives [14]. Agrivoltaic plants emerge as a solution for integrating energy generation and agricultural production and optimizing the utilization of soils by implementing dual land use. ...
... Urban planning that considers such health risks as heat islands and poor ambient air quality should also be aimed at preventing risks of respiratory infections, COVID-19 included [83,84]. ...
Comfortable urban environment plays a key role in protecting health of people residing in large urban settlements. At the same time, urban space has some peculiarities including high population and building density, imperfect traffic infrastructure, irrational planning decisions, elevated levels of ambient air pollution, heat islands and lack of urban green spaces. All these features of any urban space are significant health risk factors able to facilitate spread of respiratory diseases. This was the most evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analytical review examines the results of studies focusing on impacts exerted by these unfavorable urban conditions on COVID-19 infection, incidence, hospitalization and mortality in cities across the globe. Influence of elevated population density on COVID-19 infection is shown to be ambiguous as compared to other risk factors. More reliable data are available on the impact of air pollutants, especially PM, on incidence and mortality rates from the infectious disease in question. Also, the COVID-19 virus and abnormally high temperatures were shown to produce combined effects on mental health during the pandemic. To reduce levels of infection in urban population, a suggestion is to further develop urban infrastructure providing people with retail and other necessary facilities within a walking distance (15 minutes). An important conclusion has been made by experts on elevated risks of infection in dense foot traffic as compared to public buildings. Therefore, it is important to improve communications about the necessity of social distancing. Urban development that aims to reduce infection with respiratory diseases should involve better street aeration. The results of these studies in various cities across the globe gave grounds for making management decisions on providing better mobility in suburban areas in a more comfortable natural environment, developing green areas in cities, and reducing negative effects of the warming climate on heat islands and elevated levels of ambient air pollution. Large open green spaces are the most effective in this respect.
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Riassunto Abstract In relazione al tema del consumo di suolo, una corretta pianificazione urbana deve adottare approcci olistici che tengano conto delle dinamiche multifattoriali legate ad aspetti diversi, come la legalità, la mobilità sostenibile, la governance partecipativa, la condizione socio-economica e il verde urbano. In tal senso, l'evoluzione del consumo di suolo italiana appare anomala, in quanto presenta criticità anche in città caratterizzate da valori elevati di altri indici di sostenibilità urbana. L'obiettivo principale del presente lavoro è verificare la trasversalità del fenomeno critico del consumo di suolo anche nelle città virtuose dal punto di vista di tali diversi indici. La correlazione indagata è stata sviluppata considerando due variabili relative ai principali Comuni italiani: la dimensione urbana e la localizzazione geografica. Considering soil consumption dynamics, effective urban planning should adopt holistic approaches taking into account the multifactorial features characterizing urban sustainability, such as legality, sustainable mobility, participatory governance, the socioeconomic condition and greenery urban. In this framework, the dynamics of Italian land consumption appears anomalous, as it presents critical issues even in cities characterized by high values of other urban sustainability indexes. The main goal of this work is to verify the transversality of the critical phenomenon of soil consumption even in virtuous cities as emerging from these different indices. The correlation investigated was developed by considering two variables related to the main Italian municipalities: urban size and geographical location.
Comfortable urban environment plays a key role in protecting health of people residing in large urban settlements. At the same time, urban space has some peculiarities including high population and building density, imperfect traffic infrastructure, irrational planning decisions, elevated levels of ambient air pollution, heat islands and lack of urban green spaces. All these features of any urban space are significant health risk factors able to facilitate spread of respiratory diseases. This was the most evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analytical review examines the results of studies focusing on impacts exerted by these unfavorable urban conditions on COVID-19 infection, incidence, hospitalization and mortality in cities across the globe. Influence of elevated population density on COVID-19 infection is shown to be ambiguous as compared to other risk factors. More reliable data are available on the impact of air pollutants, especially PM, on incidence and mortality rates from the infectious disease in question. Also, the COVID-19 virus and abnormally high temperatures were shown to produce combined effects on mental health during the pandemic. To reduce levels of infection in urban population, a suggestion is to further develop urban infrastructure providing people with retail and other necessary facilities within a walking distance (15 minutes). An important conclusion has been made by experts on elevated risks of infection in dense foot traffic as compared to public buildings. Therefore, it is important to improve communications about the necessity of social distancing. Urban development that aims to reduce infection with respiratory diseases should involve better street aeration. The results of these studies in various cities across the globe gave grounds for making management decisions on providing better mobility in suburban areas in a more comfortable natural environment, developing green areas in cities, and reducing negative effects of the warming climate on heat islands and elevated levels of ambient air pollution. Large open green spaces are the most effective in this respect.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted geographers and specialists of other areas, driving them to generate knowledge aimed to explain and find solutions to the health crisis that emerged in March 2020. Within the field of geography, quantitative methods, and geotechnologies have been employed to collect measurable data which prove useful explanation and the logical relationship between variables, verifying hypotheses related to COVID-19 contagion and mortality cases. Health geography, as a disciplinary branch, has investigated the spatial-temporal distribution and dynamics of diseases, seeking to understand the processes explaining the spatial structure of them during a pandemic. In this context, a case of study, Mexico City, seeks to address questions from a health geography perspective, such as: What were the causes behind the high levels of pandemic contagion? Which environmental, social, and health factors in time and space relate and contribute to a greater impact of the pandemic? How do these factors interact with each other, and how have they influenced the increase or decrease in contagion and mortality cases? What are the short, medium, and long-term scenarios of COVID-19? To address these inquiries, spatial analysis methods and geotechnological techniques, approached holistically and have efficiently supported the identification of COVID-19 contagion risk zones and their specific characteristics. These insights prove invaluable information for spatial decision-making in comprehensive planning and territorial management.
A novel human coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was identified in China in December, 2019. There is limited support for many of its key epidemiologic features, including the incubation period, which has important implications for surveillance and control activities. Here, we use data from public reports of 101 confirmed cases in 38 provinces, regions, and countries outside of Wuhan (Hubei province, China) with identifiable exposure windows and known dates of symptom onset to estimate the incubation period of 2019-nCoV. We estimate the median incubation period of 2019-nCoV to be 5.2 days (95% CI: 4.4, 6.0), and 97.5% of those who develop symptoms will do so within 10.5 days (95% CI: 7.3, 15.3) of infection. These estimates imply that, under conservative assumptions, 64 out of every 10,000 cases will develop symptoms after 14 days of active monitoring or quarantine. Whether this risk is acceptable depends on the underlying risk of infection and consequences of missed cases. The estimates presented here can be used to inform policy in multiple contexts based on these judgments.
The purpose of this work is to synthesize, for an international audience, certain fundamental elements that characterize the Italian peninsular territory, through the use of a biogeographical model known as the “peninsula effect” (PE). Just as biodiversity in peninsulas tends to change, diverging from the continental margin, so do some socio-economic and behavioral characteristics, for which it is possible to detect a progressive and indisputable variation depending on the distance from the continental mass. Through the use of 14 indicators, a survey was conducted on the peninsular sensitivity (which in Italy is also latitudinal) of as many phenomena. It obtained confirmation results for some of them, well known as problematic for the country, but contradictory results for others, such as those related to urban development. In the final part, the work raises a series of questions, also showing how peninsular Italy, and in particular Central–Southern Italy, is not penalized so dramatically by its geography and morphology as many political and scientific opinions suggest. The result is a very ambiguous image of Italy, in which the country appears undoubtedly uniform in some aspects, while the PE is very evident in others; it is probably still necessary to investigate, without relying on simplistic and misleading equations, the profound reasons for some phenomena that could be at the basis of less ephemeral rebalancing policies than those practiced in the past.
Today, it is increasingly recognized that air pollution hurts human health. Consequently, efficient mitigation strategies need to be implemented for substantial environmental and health co-benefits. A valid approach to reducing the air pollution effects on the environment and human health is proposed. Specific guidelines have been elucidated by differentiating them on the base of the final stakeholders (citizens, enterprises, and public authorities), of the emission sources (transport, household energy, industry, and energy generation sector, agriculture, and shipping area), and of the field of implementation (urban and extra-urban context). This paper can provide useful information for governments for the implementation of a strategic plan focused on emphasizing multi-pollutant emission reductions and overall air pollution-related risk.
The growing interest in energy sector policies has led to a widespread and dispersed installation of energy production plants in Italy. This occurred due to a "ghost planning system" that operates outside the urban planning policies. Focusing on the evidence of landscape changes due to the installation of energy infrastructures in the Basilicata region we want to measure the impacts of the installation of hydrocarbon wells and renewable energy plants through a SPrinkling IndeX.
This article examines the application of performance-based planning at the local level in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. A review of the literature finds that there have been few evaluations of performance-based planning, despite its being used by many governments. The authors provide a comparative review of the experiences of various jurisdictions in implementing this form of zoning and present observations on its relative strengths and weaknesses. Findings suggest that many of the jurisdictions that adopted performance-based planning subsequently abandoned it because of the heavy administrative burden required, and where performance methods survived, they were typically hybridized with traditional zoning. If performance-based approaches continue to be used, there is a need to better understand the administrative and implementation implications of this type of land use regulation.
This paper investigates the correlation between the high level of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) lethality and the atmospheric pollution in Northern Italy. Indeed, Lombardy and Emilia Romagna are Italian regions with both the highest level of virus lethality in the world and one of Europe's most polluted area. Based on this correlation, this paper analyzes the possible link between pollution and the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome and eventually death. We provide evidence that people living in an area with high levels of pollutant are more prone to develop chronic respiratory conditions and suitable to any infective agent. Moreover, a prolonged exposure to air pollution leads to a chronic inflammatory stimulus, even in young and healthy subjects. We conclude that the high level of pollution in Northern Italy should be considered an additional co-factor of the high level of lethality recorded in that area.
The current paper analyses the issue of energy retrofitting of
buildings in Italian cities. In particular a mixed-method approach is
used combining the socio-spatial analysis of data on the most relevant policy tool, namely tax deduction, together with qualitative analysis of three case studies of middle-sized cities. The results show that on the one hand tax deduction has not been very effective in promoting a deep renovation of buildings and it may exacerbate already existing inequalities. On the other hand, it emerges that progress in eco-retrofit of buildings depends mainly on creation of new intermediators and intermediation incentives. They are increasingly necessary in an urban panorama that has become inevitably polycentric.
Due to the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 in China, almost all avoidable activities in China are prohibited since Wuhan announced lockdown on January 23, 2020. With reduced activities, severe air pollution events still occurred in the North China Plain, causing discussions regarding why severe air pollution was not avoided. The Community Multi-scale Air Quality model was applied during January 01 to February 12, 2020 to study PM2.5 changes under emission reduction scenarios. The estimated emission reduction case (Case 3) better reproduced PM2.5. Compared with the case without emission change (Case 1), Case 3 predicted that PM2.5 concentrations decreased by up to 20% with absolute decreases of 5.35, 6.37, 9.23, 10.25, 10.30, 12.14, 12.75, 14.41, 18.00 and 30.79 μg/m³ in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Tianjin, Jinan, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, respectively. In high-pollution days with PM2.5 greater than 75 μg/m³, the reductions of PM2.5 in Case 3 were 7.78, 9.51, 11.38, 13.42, 13.64, 14.15, 14.42, 16.95 and 22.08 μg/m³ in Shanghai, Jinan, Shijiazhuang, Beijing, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Tianjin, Zhengzhou and Wuhan, respectively. The reductions in emissions of PM2.5 precursors were ~2 times of that in concentrations, indicating that meteorology was unfavorable during simulation episode. A further analysis shows that benefits of emission reductions were overwhelmed by adverse meteorology and severe air pollution events were not avoided. This study highlights that large emissions reduction in transportation and slight reduction in industrial would not help avoid severe air pollution in China, especially when meteorology is unfavorable. More efforts should be made to completely avoid severe air pollution.