COVID-19: INTRODUCTION

Urban resilience towards any natural or unnatural disaster is an essential factor to manage and maintain the society’s well-being at different levels. While floods, earthquakes and such are the main concentrations of urban decision makers, the pandemic of a deadly virus in this century seemed hardly possible. According to my research, the last time the whole world was facing such a pandemic was in 1918 during the Spanish flu by which some 50 to 100 million people were killed around the world.1 By COVID-19 pandemic we faced the same situation and the same strategies as 1918 were adapted which means we have not prepared ourselves for such an epidemic after more than a century.

In this paper, I have taken a deeper look into the measurements taken by the cities regarding COVID-19 by studying the European governments’ reports as well as national and international organizations and academic institutions.

The measurements taken are in different scales as global, national and urban scales. Due to the spread speed of the virus, adapting proper strategies at different levels at the same time is essential. France was the first European country to show signs of infection and death by the virus and with a rather good crisis management compared to the neighboring countries such as Italy and Spain has been able to contain and control the infections and deaths caused by the COVID-19.

From the paper:

ROLE & ACTION OF EUROPEAN CITIES DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS (April 2020)

Posted by Sheragim Ghaeini - Wednesday, 10 June 2020