The effects of city morphology on airborne transmission of COVID-19. Case study: Port Said City, Egypt

Looking beyond COVID-19 outbreak, Scholars continue to develop innovative approaches to bring the city on to health and safety. Recent studies have indicated that urban spaces could produce or propagate pathogens, which is an urgent topic at the city level. However, there is a dearth of studies investigating the interrelationship between urban morphology and pandemics outbreak at the neighborhood level. Accordingly, this research will trace the effect of cities morphologies on the rate of spread of COVID-19 through a simulation study held on five areas that form the urban morphology of Port Said City, using Envi-met software. Results are explored based on the degree of concentration and rate of diffusion of coronavirus particles. It was observed on a regular basis that wind speed has a directly proportional relationship with the diffusion of the particles and an inversely proportional relationship with the concentration of the particles. However, certain urban characteristics led to inconsistent and opposing results like wind tunnels, shaded arcades, height variance, and spacious in-between spaces. Moreover, it is obvious that the city morphology is being transformed over time toward safer conditions; urban areas constructed recently have low vulnerability to respiratory pandemics outbreak compared to older areas.