Integrated Revealing GIS-Models to Monitor, Understand and Foresee the Spread of Diseases and Support Emergency Response

The importance of GIS-models to monitor the spread of infectious diseases and support emergency response has been underlined by a large body of literature and strengthened with the Covid-19 pandemic to identify possible geotechnological solutions able to recognise clusters and patterns, evaluate the presence of speed up factors and define specific actions. In order to implement the state of the art concerning perspectives of health geography and geography of safety, this work discusses the main aims of the project “Integrated revealing GIS-models to monitor, understand and foresee the spread of diseases and support emergency response” and shows some illustrative applications. The basic assumption of the project is to elaborate revealing models, both to monitor the spread of communicable diseases and support strategical first aid measures, that is in the case of cardiac arrest. Particularly: the first aim is to elaborate GIS models able to understand the spread of Covid-19 in some study areas relating the geocalizations of the cases with some specific variables; the second aim – which is tied to the first one – is to program a system of auto-implementation able to auto-update and auto-upgrade on the basis of new data; the third aim is to find optimal geolocalizations of new semiautomatic external defibrillators (AEDs) in unequipped areas to speed up access to community devices and increase survival from cardiac arrest; the fourth aim is to develop some 3D models of buildings able to support indoor space management and decision-making in the case of ordinary and extraordinary situations. In this paper the attention is focused on the first aim and a number of targeted elaborations focused on data regarding Covid-19 according to sex and age and healthcare facilities in the Rome municipality (Italy) are presented as examples, also replicable for precision preparedness.