Spatiotemporal Analysis of Emergency Calls during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case of the City of Vaughan

Cities have experienced different realities during the COVID-19 pandemic due to its impacts and public health measures undertaken to respond to and manage the pandemic. These measures revealed significant implications for municipal functions, particularly emergency services. The aim of this study is to examine the spatiotemporal distribution of emergency calls during different stages/periods of the pandemic in the City of Vaughan, Canada, using spatial density and the emerging hotspot analysis. The Vaughan Fire and Rescue Service (VFRS) provided the dataset of all emergency calls responded to within the City of Vaughan for the period of 1 January 2017 to 15 July 2021. The dataset was divided according to 11 periods during the pandemic, each period associated with certain levels of public health restrictions. A spatial analysis was carried out by converting the data into shapefiles using geographic coordinates of each call. Study findings show significant spatiotemporal changes in patterns of emergency calls during the pandemic, particularly during more stringent public health measures such as lockdowns and closures of nonessential businesses. The results could provide useful information for both resource management in emergency services as well as understanding the underlying causes of such patterns.