Cities after pandemic: enabling social distancing as a new design standard to achieve urban immunity

Nawras Motathud Mohammed Salih; Shaimaa Hameed Hussein

doi:10.31648/aspal.6825

Published: 2021-12-091

Vol. 20 No. 4 (2021)

Cities after pandemic: enabling social distancing as a new design standard to achieve urban immunity

Nawras Motathud Mohammed Salih

, Shaimaa Hameed Hussein

Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Administratio Locorum

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.31648/aspal.6825

Abstract

Motives: COVID-19 pandemic has caused worldwide implementation of unprecedented measures of physical distancing to decrease the potential of the COVID-19 infection. As cities respond to closure measures in order to flatten the infection curve, the challenges associated with the spread of the epidemic and the increasing numbers of infected and deaths that compel us to fundamentally rethink the formation of our cities, especially their streets, the research presents an urban review of the impact of the pandemic on cities and find solutions to recover, achieve a safe and sustainable healthy environment, and prepare better for any pandemic that may occur in the future, the research seeks to strengthen the theory of prevention, which the research proposes to call (urban immunity) by including social distancing as a design criterion in the city that has proven effective in flattening the curve.

Aims: This paper focuses on the mechanisms related to sustainable mobility after COVID-19 in shaping urban mobility and initiating a green transformation in urban transportation rapidly by decarbonizing and promoting cycling and walking across all over the city. The research methodology depends on identifying the most important urban problems that Al-Dhubat Street suffers from and proposing solutions that reduce dependence on private transportation and move towards sustainable mobility as an important step in strengthening urban prevention against any epidemics that may occur in the future, and then testing indicators on the Al-Dhubat Street to identify effective indicators.

Results: The research concluded that social distancing is the way back to active mobility by relying on walking and bicycles and works to restore the right of pedestrians in the streets and sidewalks instead of cars and thus achieve sustainable urban development, which enhances the urban immunity of the city against any other epidemics may occur in the future. With the proposed interventions on Al-Dhubat Street we can keep car use low and promote walking and cycling for a sustainable, equitable, habitable, and healthy community after the pandemic.

Keywords:

Physical Distancing, Urban Immune system, Hyper POD, 15-minute city, Sustainable, COVID-19

Most read articles by the same author(s)

Zina Riadh Abdulla, Shaimaa Hameed Hussein, Experts’ perspective towards smart management in the post-war reconstruction of the city of Mosul , Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Administratio Locorum: Vol. 21 No. 3 (2022)

Download files

PDF

Citation rules

Mohammed Salih, N. M., & Hussein, S. H. (2021). Cities after pandemic: enabling social distancing as a new design standard to achieve urban immunity. Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Administratio Locorum, 20(4), 345–360. https://doi.org/10.31648/aspal.6825

Cited by / Share

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References

Ali, A. (2021). Sweden’s One-minute City Features a More Local Approach. https://allwork.space/2021/01/swedens-one-minute-city-features-a-more-local-approach/, date: 07.01.2021.
Google Scholar

Avetisyan, S. (2020). Coronavirus and Urbanisation: Do Pandemics Are Anti-Urban? Available at SSRN 3584395, pp. 1–19. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3584395.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Barbarossa, L. (2020). The Post Pandemic City: Challenges and Opportunities for a Non-Motorized Urban Environment. An Overview of Italian Cases. Sustainability, 12(17), 7172. doi.org/10.3390/su12177172.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Bristow, D., Mohareb, E. (2020). From the urban metabolism to the urban immune system. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 24(2), pp. 300–312. doi:10.1111/ jiec.12919.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Chen, C., Hsu, L. (2015). A study of immunity-based urban system: A morphological approach. Journal of Procedia Computer Science, 60(1), pp. 652–661. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.08.201.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Cohen, N., Bordin, A. (2015). Principles of vaccination. doi:10.1002/9781119086512.ch28, date: 06.11.2015.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Conzen, M., Whitehand, J., Samuels, I. (2009). Alnwick, Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis. Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers), 33(6), pp. 859–864. doi:10.1177/0309132509334948.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Eltarabily, S., Elghezanwy, D. (2020). Post-pandemic cities-the impact of COVID-19 on cities and urban design. Journal of Architecture Research, 10(3), pp. 75–84. doi:10.5923/j.arch.20201003.02.
Google Scholar

Friedland, S. (2020). Social Distancing Is Not What You Think. Available at SSRN 3661785. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3661785.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Ghorai, A., Gawde, S., Kalbande, D. (2020). Digital Solution for Enforcing Social Distancing. Proceedings of the International Conference on Innovative Computing & Communications (ICICC). doi:10.2139/ssrn.3614898.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Government, S. (2020). Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on safer public spaces – urban centres and green spaces. Scotland, The Scottish Government.
Google Scholar

Gupta, M., Abdelsalam, M., Mittal, S. (2020). Enabling and enforcing social distancing measures using smart city and its infrastructures: a COVID-19 Use case. arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.09246, pp. 1–5. https://arxiv.org, date: 13.04.2020.
Google Scholar

Hill, D. (2020). Slowdown landscapes: One-Minute City – Fifteen-Minute City. https://medium.com/slowdownpapers/35-slowdown-patterns-one-minute-city-fifteen-minute-city-5bfeeaaff01e, date: 24.09.2020.
Google Scholar

Honey-Roses, J., Anguelovski, I., Bohigas, J., Chireh, V., Daher, C., Konijnendijk, C. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on public space: an early review of the emerging questions – design, perceptions and inequities. Journal of Cities & Health, Special Issue: COVID-19, pp. 1–17. doi:10.1080/23748834.2020.1780074.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Hussein, S., Abrahem, S. (2019). Reviving urban spaces through tactical urbanism in Baghdad: Five common tactics. Journal of Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences, 7(1), pp. 361–368. doi:10.21533/pen.v7i1.330.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Jaiswal, R., Agarwal, A., Negi, R. (2020). Smart solution for reducing the COVID-19 risk using smart city technology. Journal of IET Smart Cities, 2(2), pp. 82–88. doi:10.1049/iet-smc.2020.0043.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Karl, S., Barthel, S., Colding, J., Macassa, G., Giusti, M. (2020). Urban nature as a source of resilience during social distancing amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning. doi:10.31219/osf.io/3wx5a.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Lewis, P., Nordenson, G., Tsurumaki, M., Lewis, D.J., Ajayi, O., Algiere, S., Barstow, M., Calvert, B., Guan, V., Guimaraes, L., Himelman, D., Kim, N., Knoell, N., Debiasi, S., Mayyas, Y., Munoz, L., Leon, J., Roth, C., Schairbaum, J. (2020). Manual of Physical Distancing. Princeton University.
Google Scholar

Megahed, N., Ghoneim, E. (2020). Antivirus-built environment: Lessons learned from Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Sustainable Cities and Society, 61(1), p. 102350. doi:10.1016/j.scs.2020.102350.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Mishra, M., Majumdar, P. (2020). Social Distancing During COVID-19: Will it Change the Indian Society? Journal of Health Management, 22(2), pp. 224–235. doi:10.1177/0972063420935547.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Moreno, C., Allam, Z., Chabaud, D., Gall, C., Pratlong, F. (2021). Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, Resilience and Place Identity in Future Post-Pandemic Cities. Journal of Smart Cities, 4(1), pp. 93–111. doi:10.3390/smartcities4010006.
Crossref
Google Scholar

NACTO & GDCI. (2020). Streets for Pandemic: Response & Recovery. https://nacto.org/publication/streets-forpandemic-response-recovery/, date: 25.06.2020.
Google Scholar

O’Sullivan, F. (2021). Make Way for the ‘One-Minute City, date: 05.01.2021.
Google Scholar

Pier, G. (2004). Antigens, Antigenicity, and Immunogenicity. In: G.B., Pier, J.B., Lyczak, L.M., Wetzler (eds.). Immunology, Infection, and Immunity. doi:10.1128/9781555816148.ch8, date: 08.04.2004.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Price, G., van Holm, E. (2021). The Effect of Social Distancing on the Early Spread of the Novel Coronavirus. Journal of Social Science Quarterly. doi:10.1111/ssqu.12988.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Salama, A. (2020). Coronavirus questions that will not go away: interrogating urban and socio-spatial implications of COVID-19 measures. Emerald Open Research, 2. doi:10.35241/emeraldopenres.13561.1.
Crossref
Google Scholar

Wasdani, K., Prasad, A. (2020). The impossibility of social distancing among the urban poor: the case of an Indian slum in the times of COVID-19. Journal of Local Environment, 25(5), pp. 414–418. doi:10.1080/13549839.2020.1754375.
Crossref
Google Scholar