Innovation in Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Best Practices from Five Smart Cities in Indonesia

Smart Cities after COVID-19: Building a conceptual framework through a multidisciplinary perspective

This study provides theoretical grounds for planning smart cities using multidisciplinary approaches, offering insightful suggestions to researchers and policy- and decision-makers. Its main purpose is to contribute to the debate on the new connotations of the smart city paradigm in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will emphasize how the Internet of Things and related technologies will collaborate to develop an antivirus-built environment against future pandemics. In this context, the study proposes a conceptual framework that provides a futuristic vision of prevention control, contingency planning, and measures against future risks. Although a smart city ecosystem improves citizens’ lives, building it may involve design, implementation, and operational challenges that must be addressed.

Spatial Analysis of Socio-Economic Vulnerability in COVID-19 Handling: Strategies for the Development of Smart Society and Smart Economy

Sleman Regency has always had an increasing and highest rate of COVID-19 cases in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. One of the implementations of a smart city in some cities and regencies is an appropriate strategy in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to analyze the level of socio-economic vulnerability during the COVID-19 pandemic, compile a village typology based on the level of vulnerability, and explore the strategies of smart society and smart economy in handling COVID-19. This study used a mixed method with a sequential explanatory design. The results show that the high level of socio-economic vulnerability can be found in urban areas, while the low and moderate ones dominate in rural areas or the northern region of Sleman Regency. The pattern of socio-economic vulnerability levels is clustered, resulting in eight village typologies. The COVID-19 handling through a smart society and smart economy does not spatially consider aspects of socio-economic vulnerability, but implicitly adjusts the needs and problems of the community. Strategies for managing socio-economic vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic in the implementation of smart society and smart economy are bringing services closer to the community, shifting services to digital, increasing application features, and increasing community capacity through training.

Pandemic-Resilient Urban Centers: A New Way of Thinking for Industrial-Oriented Urbanization in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, the flourishing of industrial parks in the suburbs of major urban centers is a recent phenomenon. The outbreak of COVID-19 has had an adverse impact on the emerging industrial parks and prospects of cluster cities. The aim of this article is to explore the different urban planning measures employed during the pandemic and to propose sound planning methods for the development of sustainable industrial-oriented urban centers. In Ethiopia, industrial-oriented urbanization started in the 1920s with the advent of the railway line. Currently, more than 25 industrial park-based cluster cities have flourished adjacent to cities. A number of initiatives have been undertaken by major stakeholders in these cluster cities to combat COVID-19. Their efforts, however, were made difficult because urban planners were not proactive and did not have foresight in the selection of sites that can mitigate the impact of COVID-19 or other similar pandemics. The researchers believe the problem could have been addressed if the planners used a science-based, human-focused, computer-aided decision-making approach, i.e., space syntax. Therefore, this article recommends that planners become proactive and work in collaboration with different stakeholders for the creation of resilient and livable industrial parks-oriented urban centers.

COVID-19 in the Workplace in Indonesia

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic because of its worldwide spread. The COVID-19 pandemic does not only impact public health but also the operations of businesses and workers’ safety in their workplace. The objectives of this study were to provide a broad perspective of COVID-19 prevention and control implementation in industries, investigate barriers and challenges as well as drivers in implementing COVID-19 prevention and control, and provide key recommendations to the policy makers regarding COVID-19 prevention and control in industries. This study was conducted through online interviews with selected organizations in various industries which were selected by the granting body, including agriculture and animal husbandry; construction; manufacturing; and logistic and goods transportation. It also involved policy makers from government agencies including the Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Health, Indonesian Safety and Health Council, International Labor Organization, and Indonesian COVID-19 Task Force. The participants of this study were chosen using convenience sampling. The findings of this study indicate that health protocols are implemented to varying degrees in companies, both within and across the sectors, and that drivers to comply with the Health Protocols include compliance, business continuity, and top management commitment. The significant barriers and challenges include a perceived lack of clear direction from the government, rapid changes in directives’, poor worker awareness, and limited organizational resources. The key recommendations to the policy maker include harmonization of the guidelines and legislation, additional schemes to provide funding in the COVID-19 prevention and control implementation, as well as facilitate the ongoing education of the general working public.

Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Study of Waste Management in Indonesia in the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

It is globally known that the COVID-19 pandemic affected all aspects of society, including issues pertaining to health, economic, social, and environmental issues. The pandemic has already continued for two years and counting, and we are now advised to live coexisting with COVID-19 in the new normal era. During this new normal era, especially in Indonesia, many medical wastes (face masks, gloves, goggles, etc.) and other type of wastes are being generated due to COVID-19. However, the waste profile (waste management or waste handling) and the specific waste distribution in Indonesia during COVID-19 is not clearly understood. Therefore, in this study we perform a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of studies published during COVID-19 to describe the aforementioned issues regarding waste management in Indonesia by extracting data from Scopus as a leading indexing service for peer-reviewed publications. From more than 230,000 titles in Scopus regarding COVID-19, there are only 24 titles related to waste management in Indonesia during COVID-19. From the bibliometric analysis of the extracted data from Scopus, it can be observed that there are four clusters of interest, namely (1) medical waste and its processing, (2) COVID-19-related issues, (3) Indonesia and waste management, and (4) solid waste. The study of these issues is essential to obtain not only a clean environment, but also a sustainable future for an Indonesia that is free from COVID-19 and other related diseases in the future. Moreover, the bibliometric analysis also uncovers the research and publication gap for the topic of waste management in Indonesia in the COVID-19 pandemic era.