Background and scope

It is a pre-conference symposium associated with ICC 2021. The symposium will be held in a hybrid mode to be consistent with ICC 2021.

There is an inherent spatial dimension in the spread of infectious diseases. The spatial aspect of Covid-19 pandemic has attracted enormous research attention. Advancing our understanding of the epidemic dynamics and their relations with human activities helps the world to combat the pandemic more effectively. A large body of studies and practices have evidenced the importance of spatial thinking and the effectiveness of geospatial technologies in understanding Covid-19. It is critical to share research findings quickly so as to maximize the use of them in the world’s collective efforts. This symposium calls for submissions of Covid-19 research from the geospatial perspective. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following.

Human dynamics and Covid-19

Modeling the relationship between human mobility and spread of Covid-19

Impact of human mobility control policies

Cross-culture comparison of social policies of Covid-19 on human mobility

Modeling human behavior in a hybrid of physical and virtual spaces during Covid-19

Modeling human dynamics and urban planning in post-pandemic time

Contact Tracing

Innovative approaches to contact tracing

Contact tracing using location-aware mobile devices

Contact tracing with social networking data

Analysis of contact tracing data

Geosimulation of contact tracing

Spatiotemporal analysis and modeling of Covid-19

modeling of the spread

Analyzing spatial and temporal patterns

Machine learning and data mining

Modeling epidemic dynamics

Geovisualization and information dissemination

Maps and mapping for Covid-19

Geovisualization of spatiotemporal patterns

Interactive and real-time web-mapping

Multi-source data fusion and visualization

Animation

Social, legal and ethical issue

Privacy

Privacy-preserving and ethically-aware data collection and analysis

Cross-culture studies and comparison

Health disparity

You are invited to submit an extended abstract (1200-1500 words) at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ica2021. All submissions should be prepared in English, single column, singled-spaced with figures and tables within the text. A submission should contain author affiliations and email addresses, a short abstract (up to 250 words), and keywords, in addition to the main text. The extended abstract should include succinct and sufficient information about research objectives, significance, method, and preliminary or expected findings.

Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit full papers for consideration of post-event publication in a special issue of Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science: Urban Analytical Approaches to Combatting Covid-19. Final decisions on full paper submissions will be made following the standard double-blind peer review process.

Extended abstracts Due	June 15, 2021 Sept. 15, 2021
Acceptance notification	Aug.15, 2021 for submissions before Jun.16. Decisions will be made on a rolling basis for submissions after Jun. 16.
Symposium	Dec. 13-14, 2021

Everyone is welcome to participate in the symposium. The registration website is now open at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/164441620313. As the symposium is a hybrid event, the registration fee varies slightly depending on the form of participation.

	Early-registration (before Oct.1, 2021)	Regular registration
ICC2021 registered attendees	FREE	FREE
In-person attendees	$20	$25
Online	$10	$15

The organizing committee is pleased to announce two awards. Selections are based on the presentation and the submitted document.

           ● Best Student Paper – Two student papers won the competition. The student winner receives a cash award of $250.

            1. Impact of COVID-19 policies on pedestrian traffic and walking patterns
            Authors: Avital Angel, Achituv Cohen, Sagi Dalyot, Pnina Plaut

           2. Spatial variations of the third and fourth COVID-19 waves in Hong Kong: a comparative study with built environments and socio-demographics
             Authors: Zidong Yu, Xintao Liu

           ● Best Paper Award – This award will be made to recognize excellence in scholarship of a presented work in the symposium with a cash award of $250. All presented submissions are eligible.

           1. Revealing geographical disparities of global Covid-19 awareness and its health effects through social media
           Authors: Lei Zou, Binbin Lin, Mingzheng Yang, Bing Zhou, Heng Cai

Xiaobai Angela Yao, University of Georgia, USA. Email: xyao@uga.edu
Xintao Liu, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China. Email: xintao.liu@polyu.edu.hk
Haosheng Huang, Ghent University, Belgium. Email: haosheng.huang@ugent.be
Jukka Krisp, Augsburg University, Germany. Email: jukka.krisp@geo.uni-augsburg.de
Bin Jiang, University of Gävle, Sweden. Email: bin.jiang@hig.se

Gennady Andrienko, Fraunhofer Institute, Germany
Clio Andris, Georgia Institue of Technology, USA
Michael Batty, University College London, UK
Christophe Claramunt, Naval Academy Research Institute, France
Arzu Coltekin, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern, Switzerland
Eric Delmelle , University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
Cheng Fu, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Song Gao, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA
Georg Gartner, TU Vienna, Austria
Bisong Hu, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
Bo Huang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
Wolfgang Kainz, University of Vienna, Austria
Caglar Koylu, University of Iowa, USA
Meipo Kwan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
Ying Long, Tsinghua University, China
Marguerite Madden, University of Georgia, USA
Liqiu Meng, TU Munich, Germany
Lan Mu, University of Georgia, USA
Ross Purves, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Martin Raubal, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Guenther Retscher, Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria
Anthony Robinson, Pennsylvania State Univeristy, USA
Shih-Lung Shaw, University of Tennessee, USA
Daniel Sui, Virginia Tech, USA
Jean-Claude Thill, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
Ming-Hsiang Tsou, San Diego State University, USA
Nico Van de Weghe, University of Ghent, Belgium
Stephan Winter, University of Melbourne, Australia
Frank Witlox, University of Ghent, Belgium
May Yuan, University of Texas at Dallas, USA
László Zentai, Eotvos University, Hungary
Qingming Zhan, Wuhan University, China
Alexander Zipf, Heidelberg University, Germany
Lei Zou, Texas A&M University, USA