Addressing External Shock in Urban Agglomeration: Implications From the Transmission Pattern of COVID-19 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Area

Abstract

Properly addressing external shocks in urban agglomeration is critical to sustaining the complex regional system. The COVID-19 pandemic has been widely acknowledged as an unintended external shock, but the temporal and spatial transmission patterns are largely ignored. This study analyzed the temporal and spatial transmission patterns of COVID-19 at the macro, meso, and micro levels, and proposes a conceptual model for regional comprehensive risk calculation, taking the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) area as the focus region. Our results showed that 1) at the temporal scale, the epidemic in the BTH area experienced stages of rapid increase, gradual decrease, and stabilization, and the first wave of the epidemic was under control from 23 February 2020; 2) at the spatial scale, confirmed cases were largely distributed at the terminal of the migration network, with closely interconnected cities in the BTH area, including Beijing, Tianjin, Tangshan, and Langfang, holding the highest comprehensive epidemic risk, thus requiring special attention for epidemic prevention and control. Finally, a “two-wheels” conceptual framework was built to discuss implications for future policies for addressing external shocks. Our proposed framework consists of an isolation wheel, which involves information sharing from the holistic perspective, and a circulation wheel, which emphasizes stakeholder involvement from the individual perspective. The findings of this study provide a knowledge basis for epidemic prevention and control as well as useful implications for addressing external shocks in the future.