Location-Based Service Technologies for Major Public Health Events: Illustrated by the Cases of COVID-19 Epidemic

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in early 2020 has caused a serious impact on the safety of people's lives and economic development around the world. Based on a huge geospatial information database, location-based service can provide convenient, real-time, accurate, and comprehensive services related to geographic information to service objects. Therefore, location services can be well used in events such as emergency disaster relief, large-volume personnel tracking, and site personnel management and control in complex environments. Facts have proved that the advantages of location-based services have played an irreplaceable role in the prevention and control of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. We elaborate on China's application of location-based services for COVID-19 from multiple aspects such as BeiDou-based vehicle ad-hoc network, basic services based on ubiquitous positioning for epidemic prevention and control, and intelligent navigation robots participating in fight against the epidemic. Through the analysis and summary of these applications and their technical methods, we can deepen the connotation of location-based service technologies. At the same time, we can provide solutions for the emergency response to major public health events in the future.