Evaluation of the impact of multiple factors, elements and neighborhood patterns on the spread of dengue and covid-19: special reference to Colombo 15.

Abstract

During past decades, the mass movement of people from rural areas towards urban areas made cities vulnerable to environmental hazards, inequality, poverty, and communicable diseases identified as a huge threat. The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic causing more than five million deaths highlighted urban planning to rethink and rebuild cities to mitigate the pandemic and to create livable neighborhoods during future pandemics. The emergence of Dengue seasonally and the high number of victims and death rate is also critical health issue identified in Sri Lanka. After the emergence of covid-19, the urban areas have been highly affected and the urban households, lifestyles of people, and the corruption of countries’ economies caused an energy crisis, food crisis, unemployment, and increasing death rates that created a whole new chapter in urban planning to create comprehensive planning approaches to get back to normal while considering the risk factors. As Dengue fever is also more critical in the Sri Lankan context, the need for studies to identify the factors, and elements in urban areas including neighborhood patterns for the spread of Covid-19 and Dengue Fever is quite significant as a planner. The study focuses on the impact of urban elements, factors, and the different neighborhood patterns within the selected areas in Colombo-15 for the spread of covid-19 and dengue. The outputs indicate the vulnerability of different neighborhood patterns highlighting the measures that should be taken to mitigate the spread in the future. According to the study, the spread of dengue and covid-19 among people depends on the quality of housing and the characteristics of the neighbourhood and the comparatively high spread of diseases identified in horizontal neighborhoods with single-story housing and poor living condition.