Multi‑sectoral impact assessment during the 1st wave of COVID‑19 pandemic in West Bengal (India) for sustainable planning and management

Abstract

<p>With the advancement of globalisation, urbanisation and environmental change, the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), as an infectious disease, has become a global threat. The entire world is continuously trying to adapt to the pandemic situation due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and the lockdown phase, which has not been faced before. The fear of infection by such an unknown virus and the epidemic transformed the built-up environment and impacted various sectors of lives and livelihoods, which must be assessed in spatial perspectives. The objective of this research is to assess the multi-sectoral impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it is designed to inspect seven essential sectors, namely, the economy, employment, education, transport, travel and tourism, health and environment sector-wise impact assessment of the West Bengal state of India. Taking the required COVID-19 data from the government website of India (<a href ="http://www.covid19india.org">http://www.covid19india.org</a>; <a href="https://www.mygov.in/corona-data/covid19-statewise-status">https://www.mygov.in/corona-data/covid19-statewise-status</a>) and West Bengal (<a href ="https://covidindia.org/west-bengal">https://covidindia.org/west-bengal</a>), a methodology is proposed on an integrated framework for the multi-sectoral impact assessment. The study concentrates on West Bengal, as no study exists on the multi-sectoral impact assessment due to the COVID-19 pandemic during the 1st wave, especially using the geospatial platform. The economy, employment, education, transport, health, tourism and environment multi sectors of West Bengal are selected in this research, as these sectors have built the economic, sociocultural and environmental pillars of the state. All these sectors have been seriously affected, and the nature of the impact is diverse and large. Before the vaccine comes into the hands of the common people of West Bengal and in a broad sense in India, the awareness should be increased at the grass-root level to fight against the pandemic situation and even after the post-COVID era. The application of geospatial technology used for the mapping and analysis of COVID-19 affects the related database to tease out the multidimensional study, which aims to plan future road maps, search for answers and learn to add further security to overcome the future virus attack.</p>