Perceived Health Impact and Usage of Public Green Spaces in Brussels' Metropolitan Area During the COVID-19 Epidemic

Abstract

To fight the COVID-19 epidemic, many countries implemented containment measures that made physical distancing the norm and imposed restrictions on the use of public space. In countries where access to public green spaces (PGSs) was safeguarded, they were expected to partially counterbalance the negative health outcomes of these containment measures, as they offered a unique opportunity to meet others, to avoid isolation, and to move, play and relax at a safe distance. Research on PGS use and its objective association with health during the COVID-19 epidemic is rather limited and is based on quantitative research methodologies. Such methodologies are useful to detect objective associations between PGS use and health or between COVID-19 and PGS use, but fall short in explaining the observed associations. This qualitative research filled this gap by examining how PGS users perceived the health advantages of PGSs and how the use of PGSs changed during the epidemic in the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. In total, 23 individual face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted in various PGSs. We found that while PGSs were initially perceived as a possible threat to health in the first period of the epidemic, they gradually became associated in users' minds with both improved physical and mental health. Although the mechanisms behind this association were also present prior to the epidemic, they became more tangible and more universal. We also found that the use of PGSs changed during the epidemic due to measures and restrictions and due to health risk perceptions. We distinguished five different health risk perception profiles in relation to COVID-19: the denier, the fatalist, the negotiator, the conformer and the worrier. These different health risk perceptions impacted on the use of and behaviour within PGSs. This research confirms the importance of PGSs during an epidemic and may inspire further research, offer pointers to policymakers for developing and implementing strategies related to the use of PGSs during epidemics, and assist them in providing available and accessible PGSs and in designing attractive, more epidemic-proof PGSs.

Associations between Personal Attitudes towards COVID-19 and Public Space Soundscape Assessment: An Example from Antwerp, Belgium

“…The hypothesis underlying this investigation was that, in the context of the collective experience of the pandemic and related policies, people would be on a relatively broad spectrum of mindsets related to COVID-19, and these could be to some extent reconnected to their experiences of outdoor environments in general, and the sound environments in particular, which were reported to have significantly changed in many news outlets around the world as the pandemic events unfolded. Recent research, for instance, showed that lockdown measures led to increased need for access to public green spaces close to the place of residence where people are seeking exposures to restorative soundscapes [25].…”

confinamiento por COVID-19: efectos de las condiciones materiales y el contexto social en la salud percibida durante el confinamiento

“…In general, those studies observe how living in smaller dwellings (Poortinga et al, 2021) or in high-density residential environments (Recchi et al, 2020) lowers health perception, mainly the psychological aspect. It has also been found that the availability of gardens or open spaces protects against these effects (Noël et al, 2021).…”

Social Barriers for the Use of Available and Accessible Public Green Spaces

“…Another remark is that data collection took place just before the COVID-19 epidemic. It is plausible that other social barriers would have been identified during the epidemic and that the identified barriers would be evaluated differently (e.g., more appreciation or need for low densely and calm PGSs or the contrary, more need to meet other people to break through social isolation) (Noël et al, 2021).…”