The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) region was badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Associated social and economic costs have placed infectious disease at the top of sovereign and corporate risk registers. Prearranged financing for shock events greatly enhances the cost-efficiency and effectiveness of response, but this was virtually nonexistent for infectious disease risk prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. This study provides a review of infectious disease risk financing schemes to draw lessons and recommend solutions for CAREC member countries to strengthen their disaster risk management strategies and public sector budget resilience.

The Psychology of Covid-19 explores how the coronavirus is giving rise to a new order in our personal lives, societies and politics. Rooted in systematic research on Covid-19 and previous pandemics, including SARS, Ebola, HIV and the Spanish Flu, this book describes how Covid-19 has impacted a broad range of domains, including self-perception, lifestyle, politics, mental health, media, and meaning in life. Building on this, the book then sets out how we can improve our psychological and social resilience, to safeguard ourselves against the psychological effects of future pandemics.

The COVID-19 pandemic and other highly transmissible diseases outbreaks have given a new significance to the concept of “resilience”, placing it in the spotlight of built environment-related studies. New directions have emerged from expanding on adaptive planning, urban layouts, urban morphologies, spatial planning, healthy cities, etc. To enhance resilience in the post-pandemic era, various theories, practices, and hypotheses are being formulated by scholars around the world. For this book project, we invite chapter proposals that provide forefront discoveries about the built environment resilience during and after the ongoing pandemic. Historical perspectives of resilience and other highly transmissible diseases are also relevant to understanding the COVID-19 issues. The authors are encouraged to elaborate on critical exploratory, innovative, and cutting-edge research approaches, highlighting the effects of COVID-19 and other highly transmissible diseases in the design, planning, and perception of the built environment. We aim to gather scientific experiences, reviews, analyses, discussions, recommendations, and solutions in the fields of urban planning, urban design, urban management, environmental science, architecture, etc. The book aims to document resilience-related innovations and new perspectives for the built environment, how people’s interactions adapt to new realities, and which mechanisms, tools, and strategies are required for such transformations in the following two scales of the built environments: (1) City/district; research on planning, commuting and mobility, politics, urban configurations, regulations, transmission and prevention, models, top-down processes, innovation processes, etc. (2) Community/neighborhood; research on collaboration, transmission and prevention, isolation and quarantine, social aspects, accessibility to services, technologies, education, policies, and innovative solutions. The book covers a wide range of studies, including physical and non-physical studies, which may refer to the city infrastructure, green/blue spaces, housing, policy-making, health services, social and economic issues, etc. The findings and results contribute to the decision-making of governments, organizations, and institutions, as well as inspire scholars and future research for developing resilience in the post-pandemic era.

“Resilience vs Pandemics: Innovations in Public Places and Buildings” explores innovative solutions for architecture and public places during and after the pandemic. Additionally, the authors contribute to the documentation of architectural and social transformations that have been prompted by previous transmissible diseases, as this knowledge can inform responses to future pandemics. In this volume, the chapters present critical, exploratory, multi- and interdisciplinary, and cutting-edge research approaches; with a particular focus on the effects of COVID-19 and other highly transmissible diseases on the design, use, performance, and perception of the built environment, particularly at the building scale. This volume aims to organize a collection of scientific studies, reviews, analysis, recommendations, and solutions in the fields of urban design, architecture, design, landscape design, etc. The overarching goal is to document new approaches to create and enhance built environment resilience. Chapters shed light on novel methods, tools, processes, regulations, behaviours, and other relevant details contributing to a comprehensive understanding of this crucial issue. The two scales of the built environment under consideration are: (1) Public Places, including research on transformations (death, emergencies, changes), requirements, adaptability, usability, virtual immersion, historical perspectives, interactivity, shifts in use and programs, etc. (2) Buildings, including regulations, shifts in use and program, non-pharmaceutical interventions, human interactions, and human-machine interfaces. The book covers a wide range of studies, including physical and non-physical studies, which may refer to the city infrastructure, green/blue spaces, housing, policy-making, health services, social and economic issues, etc. The findings and results of various global case study examples contribute to the decision-making of governments, organizations, and institutions, as well as inspire scholars and future research for developing resilience in the post-pandemic era.

This book examines how we design and deliver health communication messages relating to outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics. We have experienced major changes to how the public receives and searches for information about health crises over the last twelve decades with the ongoing shift from text/broadcast-based to digital messaging and social media. Both health theories and practices are examined as it applies to testing, tracking, hoarding, therapeutics, and vaccines with case studies. Challenges to communicate about health to diverse audiences (including the science illiterate) and across (both Western and developing economies) have been complicated by politics, norms and mores, personal heuristics, and biases, such as mortality salience, news avoidance, and quarantine fatigue. Issues of economic development and land use, trade and transportation, and even climate change have increased the exposure of human populations to infectious diseases making risk and resilience more pressing. The book has been designed to support health communicators and public health management professionals, students, and interested stakeholders and university libraries.

In light of the novel corona virus outbreak in December 2019 and its subsequent impact on entire world as a global pandemic, the book attempts to provide integrated risk assessment on Covid -19 like pandemics, as well as to understand the societal, environment and economic impact of the outbreak in various sectors of development. It covers fundamental factors of global disease outbreaks and its coverage as major disaster through the complexity and severity of consequences, illustrating the dimensions of low frequency high intensity disasters. It brings together broad range of topics including basic concepts, isolation measure, role of governance and key technical advancements for containing the diseases. In addition, it also covers resilience analysis towards the impacts such outbreaks have on bio-diversity, ecosystem services and agricultural food production. It defines key exit strategies from the lessons learned and success stories of historical disease outbreaks. The book is presented in four parts, where part 1 familiarizes with fundamentals; part 2 focuses on integrated risk assessments; part 3 focuses on various measures and strategies of resilience; and part 4 suggests key lessons and recommendations. The book is a useful reading reference for scientific community, policy makers and professionals across the domains of health, environment, disasters and sustainable development. Book is specifically beneficial for postgraduate students, researchers, planners and field professionals.