COVID 19 – Urban Planning Dimensions of Pandemic Preparedness

American politician and former mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

He wasn’t referring to the recent Coronavirus crisis, but he could have been. While the human cost of the outbreak continues to climb at a heart-breaking rate, the opportunities to learn invaluable lessons from the global pandemic should not be allowed to go untaken.

At the moment, and perhaps understandably, most attention is focused on the medical response to the outbreak, and the way in which it is stretching healthcare sectors around the world to breaking point. More money for protective equipment, medical supplies and vaccine research and development is being asked for and, in most cases, given. It’s all incredibly inspiring, and we stand with people everywhere in applauding the heroic efforts of those fighting on the very frontline of this indiscriminate disease.

But when this immediate emergency is over, and the number of cases begins to drop to manageable levels, there needs to be a paradigm shift in thinking, and a new and very different focus.

Urban planners want skin in the game. Although there are already talks happening about so-called “resilience” planning, this is not enough. We need to be asking how designers, architects and urban planners can actually help authorities prevent, mitigate and withstand future outbreaks instead of just responding to them when they happen.

The Link Between Cities and Outbreaks

There is a tendency worldwide for cities to grow bigger and bigger, reducing the space between urban and peri-urban areas, and staying ever more interconnected through a growing spiderweb of transport routes. While beneficial in many ways, unchecked urbanisation is destined to cause increasing health challenges in the future.

One stark fact emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic is that some of the world’s largest cities, such as London and New York, are at the very front of the crisis. Experts predict they will be so again during any future worldwide crisis. It only takes a quick glance at the map of infections in the United States to see how closely they track with its biggest cities.

In the past, urban planning has traditionally focused on the centralisation of resources. Hospitals, shopping malls and supermarkets are frequently located in centralised spaces. This immediately poses problems during a situation such as the one in which we currently find ourselves, where people are prohibited from travelling far from their homes. Suddenly, large groups have to converge in small locations in order to procure supplies and access essential services. In the future, if planning were to focus around the decentralisation of resources, communities would be more resilient and independent.

City planning and the health of residents have always been intertwined. The way cities are designed affects noise and air pollution levels, and dictates how much access we have to outdoor space – parks, sports facilities and other green spaces. Cities that don’t take these health considerations into account generally have residents who are less healthy, putting pressure on their healthcare systems. But the levels of consultation and co-operation need to increase significantly if there are to any major inroads into preventing similar devastating outbreaks such as the one we’re currently experiencing.

So, What’s the Answer?

There is, perhaps, not a definitive one, but a good place to start would definitely be for planners to focus more on overall health and not just healthcare. New spatial strategies that promote more active lifestyles would improve our health and therefore our resistance to illness. Can we make better use of the areas surrounding rivers and canals to encourage people to spend more time outdoors? Can we include more green spaces between our more densely populated areas?

It’s clear we have to do something. Experts rank the outbreak of a human pandemic as the third most serious risk to citizens. Only war and a financial crisis are deemed more serious. City planning, big business and the healthcare sector need to come together to help protect city populations from rapidly spreading pandemics. We need more local GP practices and hospitals, more cycle routes to cut emissions from too many cars on the roads, and more open spaces left available for the construction of emergency field hospitals if ever required.

In addition, most cities import upwards of 80% of the food they consume. This creates shortages and panic when, in times of dire emergency, routes are closed and deliveries halted. We should be looking at allocating areas to urban farming and intensive growing facilities using hydroponics.

There are obviously many challenges inherent in the desire to bring city planners and healthcare planners together. But these challenges must be met if we’re to have cities that help curb the spread of infectious diseases in even the most globally mobile and connected urban populations of the future.

ACE Environmental Solutions is a multi-specialised consultancy providing total integrated Environmental, Telecommunications and Town Planning solutions to the public and private sector. We provide comprehensive environmental management, assessment, development planning and permitting, site acquisitions and compliance services to our clients, including specialist investigation studies.  We patented and just launched an Enviro-Tower that is totally off the grid and is not affected by load-shedding, power outages and can be erected in areas with no existing electricity infrastructure.

Please contact us to see how we can work together –

GM Visagie | MD – Ace Environmental Solutions | 012 663 5200 | gm@ace-env.co.za