DEVELOPMENT of “CLIMATE and KOVID-19” DATABASE

BACKGROUND

Environmental factors are key to the origin, life and behavior of microorganisms, incl. viruses and related diseases. These factors directly affect the spread of diseases by vector, water, air, food and other ways. Among the environmental factors, meteorological conditions play a leading role. These include a number of meteorological elements, such as solar radiation and duration of sunshine, air temperature and humidity, wind direction and speed, vertical stratification of the atmosphere and ground air quality, precipitation, etc., as well as meteorological phenomena such as inversions, fogs, heavy rains, wind storms, etc.

Sars-Cov-2, the causative agent of Covid-19, is also dependent on weather conditions. During the short period since the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, numerous studies have been conducted, indicating a link between meteorological factors and the behavior of the virus. Our extensive literature review of studies on the relationship between climate and Covid-19 shows that the majority of research currently establishes significant climatic connectivity with Covid-19 cases. Some climatic elements show positive and other negative correlation with regard to morbidity from Covid-19. In a number of cases, the same climate element under certain conditions is in a positive connection, and under other conditions in a negative connection with Covid-19. This in most cases proves rather complex, polynomial nature of the dependence than lack of such.

In addition, meteorological weather has an impact on people's behavior, opportunities and preferences for staying outdoors, or their accumulation indoors, where the risk of infection increases. On the other hand, weather conditions can contribute to the occurrence or aggravation of a number of other diseases, incl. chronic (cardiovascular and cerebrovascular, pulmonary, rheumatoid, those of allergic origin, etc.), which in turn increases the susceptibility of the human body to the effects of Sars-Cov-2. The influence of climate on these processes is growing even more in the conditions of its changes, which cause some unfavorable biotic and a-biotic mechanisms. Some of them have already been studied to a greater or lesser extent, and we will learn about others in the future.

Therefore, research on the importance of climate for the status of Sars-Cov-2 and the incidence of Covid-19 should continue until these issues are clarified. In this regard, it is necessary to create and permanently update specialized databases, on the basis of which future studies on the impacts of the system "Climate and Kovid-19" to expand and deepen.

AIM

The aim of this work is to lay down the principles for creating, maintaining and disclosing a database for the system "Climate and Kovid-19". For this purpose it is necessary to develop the characteristics of the database in different directions, parameterizing it – instrumental, temporal, spatial, etc.

APPROACH
The Climate and Kovid-19 database aims to create up-to-date information arrays of data on the meteorological and socio-demographic factors of Kovid-19, to shed light on its dependence on these factors and to derive a possible algorithmic relationship with with a view to improving the management of the processes related to the treatment and overcoming of the pandemic, at public
and personal level.

In order to characterize the database, the present paper sets its parameters in the following aspects:
o Thematic scope and structure;
o Temporal range;
o Spatial scope;
o Approaches to data processing;
o Data disclosure approaches.
The RESULTS achieved in this paper do not claim to exhaust all possible questions on the topic, but can be a basis to be expanded, deepened and upgraded.

Acknowledgements

This research is conducted as part of the project “Development of Methodological Approach for National Monitoring, Analysis and Assessment of the System “Climate/Climate Change – Covid 19” (Contract КП-06-ДК 1/1-29 March,2021, respectively), based at the Climate, Atmosphere and Water Research Institute at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and funded by the Research Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science, Republic of Bulgaria.