You can’t fight what you don’t see ... You have to put it on a map!

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a software- and hardware- based framework for collecting, sorting, storing, handling and analyzing large amounts of real-world data to enable more effective decision-making. 

Data integration has enabled timely actions to meet the major challenges posed by COVID-19. Geographic information systems help identify vulnerable populations, thus allowing us to learn the extent of the strife affecting them, and how to better use resources and explain the cause of the various actions taken to manage the pandemic.

It is the set of information management tools most widely used by both public or private entities in the face of a variety of issues, which makes it an important ally in managing the current COVID-19 pandemic. There are over 400 registered online geographic information services monitoring COVID-19 cases in the United States alone, under a single provider.

It is well known that domestic GISs, along with spatial data infrastructures (SDIs), have played a central part in the handling of mass data as input for system applications and indicator management dashboards. Such technologies drive the deployment of public policies to counter the spread of the virus, as well as to oversee confinement and social distancing, as seen in Bolivia, Ecuador and Caribbean countries such as the Dominican Republic and other Latin America nations.

The cases referred to by the recently published article Latin America’s Digitalization Opportunities in the Face of COVID-19 include the development of applications in India, China, Singapore, Japan, as well as in Latin American and Europe.

A special case is that of dashboards, which show an easy-to-understand overview of information. The world’s most renowned near-real-time COVID-19 case tracking dashboard is the Center for Science and Systems Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), developed in conjunction with the World Health Organization and the private sector. This global dashboard is a collaborative initiative aimed to collect and log a variety of indicators across an array of countries, ensuring a comprehensive and inclusive reading and integrating all data sources, thus overcoming interoperability barriers.

This dashboard is updated on a day-to-day basis with data received from WHO, which compiles the official information received from countries. Users can download on the site the data series published prior to January 21, 2020 for analysis.

In the case of Spain, geographic information systems have been of great use in managing confinement and social distancing, as well as tracking positive cases. It has also been pivotal in supporting the decisions made by public health institutions, displayed in the recently published Plan to Move Toward a New Normal or De-escalation Plan.

GISs are thus an important aid to Spain’s Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare, as well as the country’s municipalities, in the management of the project’s indicator dashboard, particularly in terms of healthcare, social, economic and mobility issues.

GISs and digital platform integration aim to help cities make decisions in terms of supplying and distributing goods to confined populations, as well as improving distribution logistics through the optimal use of urban space, traffic times and social control toward de-escalation.

CAF’s Vice Presidency of Infrastructure has supported the development of SDIs for more than a decade, contributing to the strengthening of institutional capacities and the dissemination of geospatial data in the region through GEOSUR. We have also financed iconic projects, such as integrated digital maps of the Americas.