Journal of Geovisualization and Spatial Analysis - Call for Papers: Geospatial Responses to COVID-19 in Africa (Special Issue)
As the world bade farewell to the year 2019 and anticipating the New Year 2020, the coronavirus infection popularly called COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan city of China. Within three months of its emergence, it had covered the entire globe in a manner that had never been seen before. To the surprise of many, Africa was the last continent to be visited contrary to expectations on February, 14, 2020 via Egypt. By the end of February, it had reached Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria. In May, 2020, the entire continent had the virus. The arrival and spread of the virus across Africa was facilitated by the movement of “internationally mobile elites” (Muller-Mahn and Kioko, 2021). Contrary to the frightful projections by foreign observers, Africa still today remains the least affected in terms of infections and death. Despite its comparatively low prevalence, there are very noticeable geographic variations in morbidity and mortality. As expected, a variety of inter- and within country responses to the pandemic have been developed for effective disease control.
One of the several responses to the prevention and containment of virus both within and outside Africa was the adoption of geospatial technology. The various forms of geospatial technology such as mapping, spatial analysis, remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to mention a few, were widely applied to monitor and forecast the global distribution of the disease around the world. A wide array of practical online/mobile GIS and mapping dashboards such as the widely known John Hopkins University Centre for Systems Science and Engineering Dashboard were tracking the progression of the virus around the world in near-real time situations. The World Health Organisation recently launched its GIS centre with the aim to provide geospatial solutions for health related issues one of which is COVID-19. The above examples have clearly proven the efficacy of the geospatial technologies in pandemics. We therefore see an opportunity to showcase the relative contributions of Africa’s geospatial community to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. This proposed article collection thus aims to celebrate scholarly efforts in this regard with a view to understanding the nature, scale and magnitude of the novel infection in Africa as well as inform and strengthen public health policy.
We kindly invite cutting edge contributions on and from Africa with a strong emphasis on geographic/geospatial interventions to COVID-19.. Therefore, this Special Issue is open for contributions related but not limited to the following topics:
1. Spatial Epidemiology of COVID-19
2. Spatial diffusion and Geovisualisation of COVID-19
3. Social Vulnerability to COVID-19
4. Open and Big Data Applications to the study of COVID-19
5. Disease Mapping and Cartographical Techniques
6. Geospatial Intelligence, Earth Observations and Drone surveillance
7. Mobile and Web App development
8. Local/national/regional policy responses to COVID-19
9. COVID-19 in African rural and urban settlements
10. Vaccination distribution, uptake and hesitancy
11. COVID-19, Climate Change and Environment
12. Human mobility, migration and transportation
14. Preventing future pandemics in Africa
15. Closing up digital and data gaps in the new normal
16. Capacity building in geospatial technologies
17.Mobile Data collection and Citizen Science
Content published in this journal is peer reviewed (Double Blind).
Manuscripts can be submitted under the following link: http://www.editorialmanager.com/jgsa/default.aspx (this opens in a new tab)
NEW DATE! The topical collection (special issue) will be closed on JUNE 30, 2023.
You can find the Instructions for Authors here (this opens in a new tab). Please direct any questions regarding the Special Issue to one of the guest editors:
Tolulope Osayomi, COVID-19 Mapping Lab, Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
E-mail: osayomi.tolu@dlc.ui.edu.ng (this opens in a new tab)
Olalekan John Taiwo, COVID-19 Mapping Lab, Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
E-mail: oj.taiwo@mail.ui.edu.ng (this opens in a new tab)
Adeniyi S. Gbadegesin, COVID-19 Mapping Lab, Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
E-mail: as.gbadegesin@mail.ui.edu.ng (this opens in a new tab)