Abstract
The relationship between the physical components of cities, including urban density, and public health of residents, is a challenging debate in different societies. Urban density affects the level of physical and mental health of residents, either directly or indirectly, however, the degree of impact depends on other factors such as social context and background culture. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the amount of physical distance between individuals in urban space mitigates the spread of COVID-19. But observing this distance in urban spaces with different density levels can be challenging. In this paper, first the attributes related to urban density is quantified, then the correlation between these measures and the prevalence of COVID-19 in the same area is analyzed. The studied physical components include: the degree of scattering and compaction of urban fabric, the configuration of movement network, the ratio of mass to space and the ratio of the presence of different types of housing (separate house, apartment and townhouse). This research was conducted for the city of Shiraz in southwestern Iran. The data used are extracted from secondary sources included Shiraz Municipality maps and Open Street maps (OSM). The findings show that there is a significant relationship between density distribution pattern with COVID-19 distribution pattern in Shiraz city. This paper has significant implication for urban planners/designers and those working in public health and epidemiology area in order to assist increasing the health resilience of urban settlements. Keywords: Urban Density; COVID-19; Urban Design; Epidemiology; Shiraz
