Access and Use of Green Areas during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Green Infrastructure Management in the “New Normal”

Abstract

This study aims to identify the influence of the socioeconomic attributes and environmental contexts of citizens’ residential areas on the access and use of green areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results can aid policymaking and facilitate the safe and unrestricted use of green areas during the pandemic. The access and use of green areas were analyzed using a survey conducted after the official COVID-19 emergency in Japan (16 April to 14 May, 2020). Visits to green areas during the pandemic have gained salience globally from multiple perspectives: health, planning, social justice, and equity. The results of this study demonstrated that socioeconomic factors influenced the frequency of visiting green areas. The factors further influenced the use of the three categories of green areas (parks, agricultural lands, and gardens). Environmental contexts, including the land use patterns in residential areas, also influenced the use of specific types of green areas. Thus, policies need to further facilitate visits to green areas by reflecting the socioeconomic attributes of residents and their households, including income, number of children, gender, and age, incorporating those who have less access and considering the spread of COVID-19 locally. Furthermore, policies for the use of specific green areas, including parks, agricultural lands, and gardens, need to take cognizance of the residents’ environmental contexts. Management of specific green areas, like agricultural lands, is required, and residents should be provided with opportunities to use these areas with measures to avoid infection.

Human Dimensions of Urban Blue and Green Infrastructure during a Pandemic. Case Study of Moscow (Russia) and Perth (Australia)

“…Moreover, as indicated by the survey results, contact with nature is considered important for maintaining personal well-being, and therefore enabling access to urban BGI during the COVID-19 pandemic could mitigate the negative effects of lockdowns and subsequent social isolation on mental health and well-being. This relationship between urban green and blue space access and well-being during the pandemic is also supported by other studies [20,26,57]. Some research indicates that the longer the quarantine period, the greater the negative impact on mental health and well-being [3,4], where people in quarantine have higher levels of avoidance behavior and anger.…”

“…We found out that despite the differences in climate, socioeconomics, history, and land-use (private-public access to green spaces), the availability, as well as the access to green and blue areas, was very highly valued among all respondents, thus supporting the notion that greening should be a fundamental strategy of cities when coping with a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This overall result is supported by related research on values and perceptions of urban green spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic from other cities of the northern hemisphere, e.g., surveys conducted in China [1], Japan [20], European countries [2,3,23], and the USA [11]. However, the southern hemisphere still lacks research, except governmental releases in Australia [45] which also highlighted physical and mental health benefits from contact with nature during the pandemic.…”

“…The COVID-19 circumstances, when billions of people over the globe were locked down with limited access to BGI, highlighted that in extraordinary situations, urban nature can play an essential role in contributing to human well-being and shaping human-nature relationships and the recovery of the post-pandemic world [11,[18][19][20]. That is, the features of a sustainable and resilient city should not only relate to fulfilling economic and social urban strategies, but also to the design and management of urban BGI in order to address current and future societal challenges.…”

“…At the same time, in many cities over the world municipalities implemented restrictions of different degrees, including access to and use of urban BGI to help encourage physical distancing [18,21]. The value of urban nature in cities during the lockdowns of 2020 revealed that living in a particular neighborhood (place of living), income, and how the government has responded to the pandemic can result in critical differences in the availability and accessibility of BGI [2,20,22,23]. Studies [3,18,20,21,[24][25][26] have confirmed that public green and blue spaces play a key role in "building back better".…”

“…The value of urban nature in cities during the lockdowns of 2020 revealed that living in a particular neighborhood (place of living), income, and how the government has responded to the pandemic can result in critical differences in the availability and accessibility of BGI [2,20,22,23]. Studies [3,18,20,21,[24][25][26] have confirmed that public green and blue spaces play a key role in "building back better". However, the issues of how these differential impacts could influence future urban development that will make the cities sustainable and resilient towards addressing challenges, such as those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, need to be better understood.…”