A geographical and crosscutting look at the COVID-19 pandemic in an international framework. Introduction
In many research and educational contexts, the geographical approach, supported by GIS applications and Earth observation, can closely collaborate with other scientific and disciplinary sectors in terms of concrete proposals and detailed analysis aimed at tackling this and future health emergencies.
And it can i.e. happen:
- providing theoretical and methodological
contributions founded on solid contents and
thoughtful critical thinking; stimulating renewed didactics and third mission, also taking advantage of the possibilities
offered by the remote teaching systems and on
line platforms, and an active participation of
the population and companies;
- promoting a deep culture and knowledge of
the events and phenomena, social and sanitary guidelines, behaviours to adopt, territorial disparities, main contagion areas etc.;
- encouraging joint discussions, international
conferences and interdisciplinary researches,
also to think about measures, decrees and
specific actions promulgated by the government of different countries, and draft summaries of good practices;
- rigorously elaborating and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data at different geographical scale, enhancing GIS tools and
functionalities for the geospatial, multitemporal and geostatistical analysis and an effective visualization;
- participating in the development of robust
and high-performance geotechnological solutions, ad hoc models and harmonised platforms to help citizens, communities, hospitals, Local Health Units and organisms in
charge etc.
New challenges, new opportunities to make science advance, new possibilities to underline the crucial role of geography in didactics, third mission, applied research and interdisciplinary project!