Does Where You are Matter? A Visual Analytics System for COVID-19 Transmission Based on Social Hierarchical Perspective

Jianing Hao, Xibin Jiang, Qing Shi, Wei Zeng

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic requires multidisciplinary efforts to address its profound social and economic repercussions. Combining social hierarchical perspectives and a Multiple Coordinated View (MCV) visualization system, this paper depicts how social and physical residential environment shapes individuals’ infection risk during such pandemic. Through analyzing the travel records of 8000+ confirmed cases in spatial and temporal channels, we identify that there exists segregation of virus transmission among different social classes and individuals from deprived neighborhoods exhibit a higher risk of the virus infection. Leveraging our proposed interactive visualization system, policymakers and stakeholders can make more informed decisions to effectively manage and contain the spread of infectious pandemics like COVID-19.