URSI Lunch seminar Bart Roelofs - Mapping and analysing regional disparities in COVID-19 infections in the Netherlands

Abstract

COVID-19 has been researched profoundly in nearly every academic field, yet the understanding of the geography of COVID-19 remains limited. While factors related to COVID-19 mortality have been identified, the drivers behind COVID-19 infections on a regional level are mostly unknown. Moreover, the studies that tried to identify such drivers appear to report conflicting findings. In order to fill this research gap, this study aimed to identify factors associated with COVID-19 incidence in Dutch municipalities between 01-09-2020 and 01-03-2021. Exploratory mapping using GIS and a multiple linear regression analysis on the COVID-19 incidence were conducted on three different periods (September/October, November/December & January/February). In these models, the COVID-19 infections were tested against various dependent variables, categorised into four groups: demographic variables, socio-economic variables, geographical variables and connectivity related variables. Results revealed several factors that can help explain COVID-19 infections on the municipal level. Additionally, large variations over time have been detected, signifying the need for caution in the reporting of factors related to regional COVID-19 infections.