Examination of the Diffusion of COVID-19 Cases in Viçosa, Minas Gerais (Brazil): A Configurational Approach

The urban space has been recognised, worldwide, as one of the main factors affecting the spread of infectious diseases. Severe acute respiratory syndrome Sars-Cov-2, which causes COVID-19, is much more transmissible than the respiratory viruses already known from previous pandemics. The role the urban space configuration played in the COVID-19 dissemination is highlighted, due to the social dynamics and physical contacts happening within it. In order to understand the configurational influence in the infection propagation process, this study used morphological analysis techniques derived from Space Syntax. As such, the research focussed on the urban space and the spatial spread of COVID-19 cases in Viçosa-MG (Brazil). A dataset of confirmed cases and corresponding locations were collected. Considering Space Syntax, Choice and Integration measures were selected as quantitative indicators for the urban space configuration. In addition, it was developed an overlapping process of syntactic analyses with the Kernel Density Estimator (also called Kernel Map), to estimate the density and concentration of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the urban space. As a result, it was possible to reveal a strong relationship between the urban space configuration and the spread of COVID-19.