COVID-19 Related Changes in Mobility, Air Pollution and Human Behavior

There has been a marked decline in travel as a result of these and other public health responses. This proposal seeks to explore the complex interplay between environmental change during COVID-19 with human behavioral responses including changes in mobility patterns and environmental quality perceptions. It aims to integrate datasets collected at different geographic scales and using different methods to explore the relationship between these changes and develop conceptual models and synthesis analysis to further guide the integration of environmental and human behavioral data collected during COVID-19. This also offers a critical learning opportunity for understanding how urban planning can help direct environmental and public health gains in repeat pandemic scenarios and for a post COVID-19 world. Our study area will be Richmond, Virginia where our preliminary analysis has revealed significant changes in air pollution.

This project will identify replicable strategies for integrating complex data collected at different scales and advance scientific understanding of linkages between urban mobility, air quality, and human perceptions of the environment via correlations within these datasets.