The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the importance of urban green spaces to the public

Abstract

Green spaces provide people with countless intangible benefits, particularly important during crises. Restrictions imposed in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to maintain social distance, limit travels, and even refrain from visiting green spaces and stay at home at a certain point. The survey in one of the largest cities in Poland, Kraków, was intended to help understand the impact of the pandemic on the importance of urban green spaces to the public. The study focused on the first three stages of the pandemic in Poland, from March to November 2020. Nine weeks of the survey yielded over 1,250 responses. Responses to spatial questions were analysed with GIS tools and geoprocessing algorithms. The number of visitors to green spaces during the pandemic fell to 78.9% of the population, which is down 13.1% compared to before the pandemic. At the same time, the percentage of people refraining from the visits fell with each phase of the crisis. According to the study, residents believed green spaces to be important for their mental and physical health. Over 75% of the participants considered visits to green spaces as having a very big or big impact on stress level reduction. The work provides empirical proof of the importance of green spaces to residents, particularly during a crisis. The results can affect urban spatial policies and management of green spaces and can potentially be applied in other cities.

Exploring public values through Twitter data associated with urban parks pre- and post- COVID-19

“…Values associated with parks could be subject to environmental characteristics and social conditions as they often emerge from unique experiences in certain places ( Brown et al, 2015 , Chen et al, 2020 , Dickinson and Hobbs, 2017 , Hull et al, 1994 , Ives et al, 2017 ). During the COVID-19 pandemic when social distancing and home quarantine were recommended, the health and psychological benefits of urban parks became more salient as people were in need of being outside of home for mental rejuvenation, companion seeking, and physical activity ( Addas and Maghrabi, 2022 , Fagerholm et al, 2021 , Heo et al, 2021 , Khalilnezhad et al, 2021 , Noszczyk et al, 2022 , Reid et al, 2022 , Spano et al, 2021 , Ugolini et al, 2020 ). Although urban parks appear to be crucial to physical and mental wellbeing, decrease in usage or desire to visit was found to result from concerns about viral transmission, especially in places that tend to be crowded and at times when COVID cases were surging ( Addas and Maghrabi, 2022 , Fagerholm et al, 2021 , Larson et al, 2022 , Lopez et al, 2020 , Pan et al, 2022 ).…”

Exploring the Impacts of Urban Community Leisure on Subjective Well-Being during COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Case Study

“…First, the public should be made aware of the importance of community leisure and its effects on physical and mental health. The COVID-19 outbreak has increased our awareness of the importance of safety and physical health [ 66 ]. Community leisure activities can allow residents to engage in physical exercise and improve their health.…”

Landscape Perception and the Importance of Recreation Areas for Students during the Pandemic Time

“…Noszczyk et al (2022) in their research considered the reasons for visiting green spaces during the pandemic period and identified the areas of green space that were most frequently chosen in Kraków. The improvement of general well-being was the most significant factor [ 67 ].…”