Spatial Modeling and Analysis of Human Traffic and Infectious Virus Spread in Community Networks

Siqi Zhang, Hui Yang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The use of network models to study the spread of infectious diseases is gaining increasing interests. They allow the flexibility to represent epidemic systems as networks of components with complex and interconnected structures. However, most of previous studies are based on networks of individuals as nodes and their social relationships (e.g., friendship, workplace connections) as links during the virus spread process. Notably, the transmission and spread of infectious viruses are more pertinent to human dynamics (e.g., their movements and interactions with others) in the spatial environment. This paper presents a novel network-based simulation model of human traffic and virus spread in community networks. We represent spatial points of interests (POI) as nodes where human subjects interact and perform activities, while edges connect these POIs to form a community network. Specifically, we derive the spatial network from the geographical information systems (GIS) data to provide a detailed representation of the underlying community network, on which human subjects perform activities and form traffics that impact the process of virus transmission and spread. The proposed framework is evaluated and validated in a community of university campus. Experimental results showed that the proposed simulation model is capable of describing interactive human activities at an individual level, as well as capturing the spread dynamics of infectious diseases. This framework can be extended to a wide variety of infectious diseases and shows strong potentials to aid the design of intervention policies for epidemic control.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2021
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages2286-2289
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781728111797
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2021 - Virtual, Online, Mexico
Duration: Nov 1 2021Nov 5 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
ISSN (Print)1557-170X

Conference

Conference43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2021
Country/TerritoryMexico
CityVirtual, Online
Period11/1/2111/5/21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Signal Processing
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Health Informatics

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