Abstract
Economic and social complications in addition to loss of many invaluable lives came with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the COVID-19 disaster, digital technologies and their applications became a powerful mitigating tool. Experience of several cities around the world indicates that smart city technologies enabled local and central governments as well as firms to provide various public and business services in a fast and effective way while complying with the social distancing, quarantines, and COVID-19 curfews. This chapter elaborates how the city-level adoption of digital technologies in Tehran, the most populous city in the West Asia, mitigated the pandemic impacts. Smartening initiative in Tehran commenced in 2015 and was accelerated by the COVID-19 spread. Contact trace, surveillance, telemedicine, and telework are among the key applications of smart city technological solutions in Tehran during the pandemic. This chapter categorizes these applications in different dimensions including mobility, environment, health, etc. In particular, MyTehran, a mobile application, which offers public services and Corona+ program, supporting digital startups and firms working on relevant solutions to alleviate COVID-19 consequences, are notable instances of how smartening Tehran enhanced its resilience against the pandemic. Chapter’s conclusion explains varied challenges that Tehran faces in the path of transition to a smart city prior to, throughout, and post-COVID-19 pandemic.
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Fartash, K., Navab Irani, P., Sadabadi, A.A. (2023). Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 in Tehran via Technologies in Smart Cities. In: Singh, A. (eds) International Handbook of Disaster Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8388-7_71
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