EPICO19 is a Decision Support System (DSS) developed by TerrAria in 2020 within the EPICO19 (acronym for EPIdemiological and logistic COVID-19 model) project funded by the European Space Agency to support the response and management of the COVID-19 pandemic through the application of innovative geospatial technologies.
EPICO19 is a map-centered web application (WebGIS) whose interface is made with open-source technologies also to facilitate its possible transferability and replicability to other spatial contexts.
The back-end of EPICO19 consists of the following main components:
- Spatial and temporal database of health parameters;
- Database of environmental parameters obtained from satellite images (NO concentrations2 , PM10 and PM2.5) through a specific engine;
- Database of mobility parameters obtained from high-resolution VHR satellite images (crowding density index and its variation) through a specific engine;
- Machine Learning epidemiological model to predict health parameters and possible additional policy scenarios through a what-if approach.
In order to preserve sensitive information such as health information, DSS EPICO19 has limited access to public health experts (currently the epidemiologists of the Reggio Emilia Local Health Unit).
Product functionality
The web application aims to map, monitor and predict the spread of the epidemic through a Machine Learning model, monitor vulnerability and population crowding through satellite observation, respectively by modeling air pollution exposure and counting and geolocating vehicles with an AI engine.
EPICO19 enables:
- Analyze the spread and dynamics of past outbreaks;
- Monitor the current spread of the epidemic through spread maps with municipal detail and by census section;
- Predict the spread of the epidemic and the effectiveness of blockade/mobility restrictions to contain the epidemic in the study area;
- Display maps and time series of health and environmental/mobility parameters and related indicators.
