UCL Geography and COVID-19
UCL Geography research explores COVID-19’s unequal impacts, tracing its spread, governance, and environmental consequences while highlighting the role of human and nonhuman agencies globally.
It has long been recognised that epidemics and pandemics are geographical problems, with several dimensions. Their spread is never universal, and the disease is clustered in specific regions, affecting populations unevenly.
Geographers examine COVID-19 as a global problem with unequal health, social, and economic consequences. Research explores links between disease spread, political and economic structures, scientific expertise, and the unpredictable impacts of pandemics. UCL Geography is shedding light on all these aspects.
Explore the research
Explore how UCL Geography researchers are investigating the multiple impacts of COVID-19. Click each researcher’s name to read about their work, findings, and key publications on the pandemic’s social, environmental, and political dimensions.
Professor Datta (Professor of Human Geography) examines the redeployment of surveillance technologies to monitor COVID-19 in India. Her commentary in Dialogues in Human Geography explores the use of selfies within quarantine apps as a form of visual governance. She has also published:
- Datta, A. (2020) Self(ie)-governance: Technologies of intimate surveillance in India under COVID19, Dialogues in Human Geography
- Blog: Survival Infrastructures under COVID-19, Royal Geographical Society
- Podcast: IAS Talk Pieces #4: Life in the Time of Coronavirus – Survival Infrastructures
- Blog: COVID-19 may be an urban crisis, but India’s small cities will be its 'collateral damage'
Professor Cheshire (Professor of Geographic Information and Cartography) and Terje Trasberg analysed phone data to chart activity changes in major UK cities during lockdown. Activity in London declined more than in other metropolitan areas.
Professor Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (Professor of Human Geography) studies refugee-led local responses in North Lebanon and contributes to Channel 4 News on global poverty during COVID-19. Her Refugee Hosts project includes a mini-blog series.
- Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2020) Responding to Precarity: Beddawi Camp in the Era of COVID-19, Journal of Palestine Studies, 49(4), 27-35
- Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E., & Qasmiyeh, Y.M. (2020) Refugees’ Pandemic Responses in a Palestinian Camp in Lebanon, Current History, 119(821): 349–355. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.2020.119.821.349
Dr Arabindoo (Associate Professor in Geography and Urban Design) published Pandemic cities: Between mimicry and trickery, reflecting on Chennai’s lockdown and future urban discourses.
- Arabindoo, A. (2020) Pandemic Cities: Between mimicry and trickery, Cities and Society
Dr Horton (Lecturer in Economic Geography) researches COVID-19 impacts on care home finances and sustainability, and investigates local economies and mutual aid initiatives during lockdown.
- Horton, A. (2019) Financialization and non-disposable women: Real estate, debt and labour in UK care homes, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
Dr Jones (Associate Professor of Environmental Governance) studies COVID-19’s significance for governance and the Green New Deal, advocating state intervention that is responsive to experts and communities.
- After Corona Virus: a comprehensive Green New Deal restores local jobs, benefits communities
- With Professor Mark Maslin: What COVID-19 can teach us about governance
Dr Ingram (Associate Professor of Human Geography) focuses on geopolitics and biosecurity, writing on COVID-19’s disruptive geopolitical consequences.
- Ingram, A. (2010) Biosecurity and the international response to HIV/AIDS, Area 42(3), 293-301
Professor Barry (Professor of Human Geography) examines the acceleration of vaccine production and collaborates with Dr Ingram on understanding COVID-19’s geopolitical consequences.
Professor Thompson (Professor of Physical Geography) investigates coronavirus in water, secondary transmission risks, water quality improvements during lockdown, and conservation challenges.
- Carducci, A., et al. (2020) Making Waves: Coronavirus detection…, Water Research 179, 115907
- Liu, D., et al. (2020) Potential secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via wastewater, Science of the Total Environment 749, 142358
- Liu, D., Yang, H., Thompson, J.R., et al. (2022) COVID-19 lockdown improved river water quality in China, Science of the Total Environment 802, 149585
- Yang, H., Ma, M., Thompson, J.R., Flower, R.J. (2020) Protect the giant ibis through the pandemic, Science 6506, 929
- Yang, H., Thompson, J.R. (2020) Fighting COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons, BMJ 369:m1362
Professor Dittmer (Professor of Political Geography) studies Gibraltar’s temporary COVID-19 border restrictions and their implications for post-Brexit freedom of movement.
Dr Marais (Associate Professor in Physical Geography) researches UK air quality improvements during lockdown using ESA Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI satellite data and GEOS-Chem chemical transport modelling.
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