The Course of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland in Relation to the Level of Sustainable Development – Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression Analysis

Motives: This article explores the relation between the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and the level of Sustainable Development of Polish counties. First, the data was collected to describe the level of Sustainable Development in terms of Social, Environmental and Economical indicators. In the second step, using data regarding the number of COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths caused by the pandemic, a regression model was built using Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR). Aim: Authors decided to create a comprehensive model of the level of Sustainable Development. This approach made it possible to analyze the relations between the level of Sustainable Development and the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as provided an opportunity to address the individual components of the model. Results: The values of the coefficient of determination of the regression model indicate a high and very high fit. The MGWR model also made it possible to develop maps of local R-Squared values. These maps, by exploring spatially varying relationships between variables, further allowed to identify local anomalies of the phenomenon.