IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2022i1p390-d1015854.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Examining the Human Activity-Intensity Change at Different Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic across Chinese Working, Residential and Entertainment Areas

Author

Listed:
  • Shuang Ma

    (College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Kang Cao

    (College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Shuangjin Li

    (Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima 739-8529, Japan)

  • Yaozhi Luo

    (College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

  • Ke Wang

    (College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

  • Wei Liu

    (Institute for Health and Environment, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing 401331, China)

  • Guohui Sun

    (Beijing Key Laboratory of Environment and Viral Oncology, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has already resulted in more than 6 million deaths worldwide as of December 2022. The COVID-19 has also been greatly affecting the activity of the human population in China and the world. It remains unclear how the human activity-intensity changes have been affected by the COVID-19 spread in China at its different stages along with the lockdown and relaxation policies. We used four days of Location-based services data from Tencent across China to capture the real-time changes in human activity intensity in three stages of COVID-19—namely, during the lockdown, at the first stage of work resuming and at the stage of total work resuming—and observed the changes in different land use categories. We applied the mean decrease Gini (MDG) approach in random forest to examine how these changes are influenced by land attributes, relying on the CART algorithm in Python. This approach was also compared with Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR). Our analysis revealed that the human activity intensity decreased by 22–35%, 9–16% and 6–15%, respectively, in relation to the normal conditions before the spread of COVID-19 during the three periods. The human activity intensity associated with commercial sites, sports facilities/gyms and tourism experienced the relatively largest contraction during the lockdown. During the relaxations of restrictions, government institutions showed a 13.89% rise in intensity at the first stage of work resuming, which was the highest rate among all the working sectors. Furthermore, the GDP and road junction density were more influenced by the change in human activity intensity for all land use categories. The bus stop density was importantly associated with mixed-use land recovery during the relaxing stages, while the coefficient of density of population in entertainment land were relatively higher at these two stages. This study aims to provide additional support to investigate the human activity changes due to the spread of COVID-19 at different stages across different sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Shuang Ma & Kang Cao & Shuangjin Li & Yaozhi Luo & Ke Wang & Wei Liu & Guohui Sun, 2022. "Examining the Human Activity-Intensity Change at Different Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic across Chinese Working, Residential and Entertainment Areas," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:390-:d:1015854
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/390/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/390/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mrinank Sharma & Sören Mindermann & Charlie Rogers-Smith & Gavin Leech & Benedict Snodin & Janvi Ahuja & Jonas B. Sandbrink & Joshua Teperowski Monrad & George Altman & Gurpreet Dhaliwal & Lukas Finnv, 2021. "Understanding the effectiveness of government interventions against the resurgence of COVID-19 in Europe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Edward L. Glaeser & Caitlin S. Gorback & Stephen J. Redding, 2020. "How Much Does COVID-19 Increase with Mobility? Evidence from New York and Four Other U.S. Cities," Working Papers 2020-22, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    3. Giovanni Bonaccorsi & Francesco Pierri & Matteo Cinelli & Andrea Flori & Alessandro Galeazzi & Francesco Porcelli & Ana Lucia Schmidt & Carlo Michele Valensise & Antonio Scala & Walter Quattrociocchi , 2020. "Economic and social consequences of human mobility restrictions under COVID-19," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(27), pages 15530-15535, July.
    4. Fang, Hanming & Wang, Long & Yang, Yang, 2020. "Human mobility restrictions and the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    5. Piers M. Forster & Harriet I. Forster & Mat J. Evans & Matthew J. Gidden & Chris D. Jones & Christoph A. Keller & Robin D. Lamboll & Corinne Le Quéré & Joeri Rogelj & Deborah Rosen & Carl-Friedrich Sc, 2020. "Current and future global climate impacts resulting from COVID-19," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 10(10), pages 913-919, October.
    6. Sungjo Hong & Seok-Hwan Choi, 2021. "The Urban Characteristics of High Economic Resilient Neighborhoods during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Suwon, South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-39, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicola Borri & Francesco Drago & Chiara Santantonio & Francesco Sobbrio, 2021. "The “Great Lockdown”: Inactive workers and mortality by Covid‐19," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(10), pages 2367-2382, September.
    2. Aldo Carranza & Marcel Goic & Eduardo Lara & Marcelo Olivares & Gabriel Y. Weintraub & Julio Covarrubia & Cristian Escobedo & Natalia Jara & Leonardo J. Basso, 2022. "The Social Divide of Social Distancing: Shelter-in-Place Behavior in Santiago During the Covid-19 Pandemic," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(3), pages 2016-2027, March.
    3. Checo Ariadne & Grigoli Francesco & Mota Jose M., 2022. "Assessing Targeted Containment Policies to Fight COVID-19," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 159-196, January.
    4. Abel Brodeur & David Gray & Anik Islam & Suraiya Bhuiyan, 2021. "A literature review of the economics of COVID‐19," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1007-1044, September.
    5. Andrew G. Atkeson & Karen A. Kopecky & Tao Zha, 2024. "Four Stylized Facts About Covid‐19," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(1), pages 3-42, February.
    6. Badi H. Baltagi & Ying Deng & Jing Li & Zhenlin Yang, 2023. "Cities in a pandemic: Evidence from China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 379-408, March.
    7. Borsati, Mattia & Nocera, Silvio & Percoco, Marco, 2022. "Questioning the spatial association between the initial spread of COVID-19 and transit usage in Italy," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    8. Wu, Jianxin & Zhan, Xiaoling & Xu, Hui & Ma, Chunbo, 2023. "The economic impacts of COVID-19 and city lockdown: Early evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 151-165.
    9. Nicolò Gatti & Beatrice Retali, 2021. "Fighting the spread of Covid-19 : was the Swiss lockdown worth it?," IdEP Economic Papers 2101, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
    10. Caixia Wang & Huijie Li, 2022. "Public Compliance Matters in Evidence-Based Public Health Policy: Evidence from Evaluating Social Distancing in the First Wave of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-13, March.
    11. Mauro Caselli & Andrea Fracasso & Sergio Scicchitano, 2022. "From the lockdown to the new normal: individual mobility and local labor market characteristics following the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1517-1550, October.
    12. Adam Przybylowski & Sandra Stelmak & Michal Suchanek, 2021. "Mobility Behaviour in View of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic—Public Transport Users in Gdansk Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, January.
    13. Leonardo Fabio Morales & Leonardo Bonilla‐Mejía & Jose Pulido & Luz A. Flórez & Didier Hermida & Karen L. Pulido‐Mahecha & Francisco Lasso‐Valderrama, 2022. "Effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the Colombian labour market: Disentangling the effect of sector‐specific mobility restrictions," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 308-357, February.
    14. Laura Alfaro & Ester Faia & Nora Lamersdorf & Farzad Saidi, 2022. "Health Externalities and Policy: The Role of Social Preferences," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6751-6761, September.
    15. Clark, Andrew E. & Nong, Huifu & Zhu, Hongjia & Zhu, Rong, 2021. "Compensating for academic loss: Online learning and student performance during the COVID-19 pandemic," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    16. Bisin, Alberto & Moro, Andrea, 2022. "JUE insight: Learning epidemiology by doing: The empirical implications of a Spatial-SIR model with behavioral responses," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    17. Brinkman, Jeffrey & Mangum, Kyle, 2022. "JUE Insight: The Geography of Travel Behavior in the Early Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    18. Boto-García, David, 2023. "Investigating the two-way relationship between mobility flows and COVID-19 cases," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    19. Michał Wielechowski & Katarzyna Czech & Łukasz Grzęda, 2020. "Decline in Mobility: Public Transport in Poland in the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-24, September.
    20. Mauro Caselli & Andrea Fracasso & Sergio Scicchitano, 2020. "From the lockdown to the new normal: An analysis of the limitations to individual mobility in Italy following the Covid-19 crisis," Discussion Paper series in Regional Science & Economic Geography 2020-07, Gran Sasso Science Institute, Social Sciences, revised Oct 2020.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:390-:d:1015854. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.