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Jovany Cota

Jovany Cota

Major: 

Geography

Mentor(s): 

Evgeny Noi

Faculty Sponsor(s): 

Somayeh Dodge, Department of Geography

Faculty Sponsor's Department(s): 

Materials Research Laboratory

Project Title: 

Exploring Impact on Mobility in Wildfire Impacted Areas During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Project Description: 

Our movement impacts the transmission of COVID-19 and is affected by wildfires as people are forced to leave their homes for safety. Consequently, it is unclear how mobility is affected in wildfire impacted areas during the pandemic. As a result, the aim of this study is to analyze daily mobility data to find the effects, if there is any, on mobility in wildfire impacted areas during the pandemic. Specifically, focusing on how people respond to events by using mobility to model any changes and trends. This research can improve response times, routes, and protocols in similar future situations by furthering our understanding of how more than one natural disaster event occurring in one place can impact the mobility of the population. We explore these effects through observing any trends in mobility before, after and during a wildfire event (e.g. Lake Fire) for Los Angeles County, Kern County, & San Bernardino County. To do so, first, we establish the area of interest, or areas affected by the wildfire, to be the center of focus. Then, we quantify the movement for the area of interest by conducting an exploratory analysis by visualizing their daily mobility (i.e. distance traveled from home) before, after and during the wildfire to find any possible trends. Our initial hypothesis is that the mobility of the nearby area is more affected by the presence of a wildfire and the transmission of COVID-19. However, preliminary results indicate little difference in mobility before, after, and during the wildfire--Lake fire hardly had an impact on mobility. In contrast, the mobility of the area of interest shows a significant change from 2019, when COVID-19 pandemic was not a factor. In order to better investigate the impact on mobility in wildfire impacted areas during the pandemic, we plan to use a different source of data that is representative of micro-mobility by using finer scale data.