April 2020 Summaries

Anagraph, a company based in Montreal, has developed a geospatial solution called Geometric to help online retailers with geomarketing. The application uses demographic data and provides insights that can boost sales. It also includes a Shopify connector for users who operate through the platform. Anagraph's expertise in GIS and cartography allows them to develop customized solutions quickly. In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they produced dashboards to aid emergency response efforts, including one that uses demographic data to identify areas at higher risk of complications from the virus.

The COVID-19 pandemic is shifting attention from major metropolitan areas to smaller rural communities, which are now at risk of being severely affected by the outbreak. The Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), in partnership with AppliedXL and STAT, has developed a COVID-19 Preparedness Tool to analyze disparity levels across the US and identify areas that need support. The tool uses data sets such as licensed hospital beds within a 40-minute drive, critical care staff, population aged 65 and older, Social Vulnerability Index, and data from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's COVID-19 model to determine preparedness scores for each US county. The results show that some rural areas are better prepared than others, with regions like Vermont and New Hampshire appearing more equipped to handle the outbreak, while others in the Deep South and Western states face higher risks. CORI hopes the tool will be used by local leaders, officials, and members of the media to better understand and respond to the challenges facing rural America.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the Out-of-Home (OOH) industry, with clients in key sectors such as Automotive, Travel, Retail & Leisure feeling the pinch. To navigate this challenging period, OOH players must optimize campaigns and understand consumer behavior, moving beyond digital metrics to analyze new data streams like human mobility, vehicular traffic, social media, and financial insights. The sector cannot remain insulated from the crisis, with campaigns paused mainly and not discontinued, but also offering opportunities for OOH's immediacy and contextual flexibility. Consumer mobility has fallen significantly, affecting various groups differently, including agencies, estate owners, and media sellers, who are considering options to reduce expenses and diversify their businesses. The industry is pulling together in response to the crisis, with more flexible terms being offered by landlords, media owners, and agencies. Looking ahead, post-COVID-19 growth prospects for OOH are uncertain, with forecasts ranging from a 6% drop to a 50% decline in overall spend. The industry must learn from previous advertising recessions and be responsible in its response to the crisis, offering joint initiatives and using real-time data to reflect accurate mobility figures.

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a global health, economic, and political crisis, highlighting the importance of data scientists' role in understanding its consequences. To support this effort, CARTO has made its platform available to researchers through grants and is now providing open access to key datasets for COVID-19 research via its new Data Observatory. These datasets include aggregated cases by country, healthcare provider locations, travel restrictions, and public health restrictions, which can be used in spatial data science models using CARTOframes and the data enrichment methods. The Data Observatory has been made available to all Google BigQuery users as a public data project, allowing for wider access to these datasets.

CARTO & Fulcrum partner to provide COVID-19 emergency response solutions, addressing challenges in data collection, analysis, and visualization. The partnership aims to accelerate the response to COVID-19 by simplifying the data lifecycle for organizations and individuals using data to fight the pandemic. CARTO's spatial analysis platform complements Fulcrum's mobile apps, enabling users to store, analyze, and visualize location data collected from various industries such as healthcare, epidemiology, critical infrastructure security, telecoms, and agriculture. The integrated solutions facilitate real-time data collection, analysis, and visualization for various use cases including clinical infection prevention, patient case data collection, corporate inspection, and facility management. The partnership provides mutual solutions for a three-month period through the grants program, allowing organizations to deploy at no cost with app support, helping to contain the pandemic and support economic recovery.

Spatial.ai has partnered with CARTO to bring geosocial data insights during and post COVID-19, transforming the vast ocean of social media data into actionable insights through categorization. This partnership enables retailers to better understand their customers, provide context to Real Estate Market Analysis, optimize product distribution strategies, and more. Geosocial segments such as "Green Thumb", "Animal Advocates", and "Mindfulness & Spirituality" have been identified, providing a unique ability to capture and quantify insights at a geographic level. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically modified daily activities, transforming routines, behaviors, and personalities, with geosocial data reflecting these changes. By analyzing this data, institutions and organizations can gain insights into how the pandemic is affecting moods and behaviors, enabling them to react and understand the broader implications for humanity.

The Spanish Government has launched an official self-diagnosis app, AsistenciaCOVID-19, which is now available in five new autonomous communities. The app was developed by CARTO and other partners, and allows citizens to access clear advice and guidance on COVID-19, as well as reminders to monitor their health status. The app can be accessed via web or mobile devices and has already been relieving the burden on health systems. The Spanish Government plans to release the source code of the app, allowing other official bodies to implement their own versions. The app is designed to collect data that will be used for statistical research and public policy purposes, with strict measures in place to protect user privacy.

Location Analytics: A Roadmap to Post COVID-19` The past few months have seen a surge in location technology applications globally, with maps appearing on news broadcasts and citizens discussing spatial analysis. Governments have also been using spatial data for contact tracing, lockdown enforcement, and symptom diagnosis. As the pandemic progresses, geography has become increasingly important, especially for professionals with expertise in both Geography and Data Science. The American Enterprise Institute's report outlines four phases of recovery: slowing the spread, reopening state by state, establishing protection, and rebuilding readiness for the next pandemic. Location analytics can help during each phase through real use cases, such as monitoring community adherence to physical distancing, increasing diagnostic testing capacity, ensuring functioning healthcare systems, implementing comprehensive COVID-19 surveillance systems, and mass scaling contact tracing and isolation measures. To move from one phase to another, a set of actions and achievements must be seen as societal indicators, which can be triggered by the effective use of geospatial technologies.

The spread of COVID-19 has caused a significant disruption globally, leading to widespread lockdowns, travel restrictions, and economic instability. The use of spatial data science and location-based data streams is crucial in understanding the dynamic nature of the virus's spread over time and space, enabling governments, institutions, and organizations to design, monitor, and optimize response measures. By analyzing online audience data, human mobility patterns, and other location-based indicators, insights can be gained on how social distancing efforts are being implemented across different regions and states, helping to identify areas where additional support is needed. Additionally, spatial data science can inform city emergency management services by providing critical information for better planning and resource allocation, such as identifying metro stations at risk of overcrowding and optimizing transportation services to ensure healthcare workers' safe passage. CARTO's technology and expertise are available to collaborate with organizations seeking to apply spatial analysis in the fight against COVID-19.

The USNS Comfort hospital ship docked on Manhattan's West Side to serve as a referral hospital for patients not infected with COVID-19, while allowing civilian hospitals to focus on treating those infected. To address food insecurity among the poor and near-poor in NYC, Territorial Empathy, inspired by the NYC FoodHelp map, redesigned it to highlight community kitchens, food banks, and school meal pickup locations during the pandemic. The new map has been shared over 400 times, helping the LatinX community of Sunset Park find essential services. Additionally, Territorial Empathy aims to apply spatial analysis and data science in other areas of support for vulnerable communities, particularly undocumented immigrants.