Yang receives funding for services in support of COVID-19 mitigation mapping events

Chaowei Yang, Professor, Director, NSF Spatiotemporal Innovation Center, Geography and Geoinformation Science, received $90,000 from the U.S. Department of State for a project in which researchers at Mason, Harvard, and Colorado State University will address the role of spatiotemporal geospatial data in understanding and mitigating impacts from the global COVID-19 pandemic. The research will focus on possible long-term and second-order impacts of COVID-19 and the responses that have been enacted at multiple scales, from multinational regions to neighborhood levels.

The researchers aim to facilitate discussion and conduct research and reporting to inform participatory mapping and open data creation taking place in developing countries to mitigate COVID second order impacts.

Researchers at Harvard will work with researchers at Mason and Colorado State University at Fort Collins to support local mapping projects, which will include partners' application of proven and innovative participatory and remote mapping methods to create open data, conduct analyses, and produce publicly-available digital maps in support of data-driven decision-making for food security, economic development, and social services. Participating local partners will include stakeholders in academia, non-governmental organizations, community organizations, municipal and regional governments, and the private sector.

The project will support an increased capacity in developing countries to use mapping and analysis for mitigating COVID-19 impacts by enabling the understanding of resource needs and availability for vulnerable populations. This work will facilitate the fulfillment of those needs and promote resilience and sustainability in the face of COVID-19 and beyond.

Funding for this project began in September 2020 and will end in September 2021.