Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted urban life and created spatial and social inequalities in cities. The impacts of lifting full lockdown restrictions once fast-spreading and community-acquired infection waves were under control are still not fully understood. This study aims to explore spatial inequality reinforced in the intervals between the waves of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enclave-reinforced inequality resulting from enclave-based lockdown policies in Chinese cities was investigated through an analysis of the impacts of university campus enclave closures on the accessibility and crowdedness of urban green spaces. Using a modified two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) and inversed 2SFCA (i2SFCA) method, accessibility and crowdedness were calculated and compared under two different scenarios. Additionally, the Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, and Theil index were used to measure and compare intra-city global and local inequalities under each scenario. The results indicate that the lockdown of university campus enclaves decreased the supply of urban green spaces. Campus closures not only exacerbated the unequal distribution of urban green space, but also reduced the inequality of crowdedness in urban parks due to increased crowdedness in parks near the closed enclaves. Moreover, both accessibility and crowdedness worsened when the calculations were weighted for population size and the total supply of green space. Enclave-based lockdown in cities reinforced spatial inequality, and it is highly complex and has multidimensional impacts on urban inequalities and environmental injustice which should be considered by urban planners and decision-makers hoping to create healthy, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities in the “new normal” of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
With the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019, lockdown, mobility restrictions, and border closure policies were adopted worldwide to control the spread of the virus [1].Local lockdowns and restrictive policies, such as social distancing, border closures, and movement tracking, were implemented to control the situation and these produced a profound change in urban lifestyles [2,3]
The results accessibility to green space decreased results indicate indicatethat thatthe the lockdown of of university university campus enclaves lockdown enclaves reduced reduced local localresidents’
The results suggest enclave-reinforced inequality was caused by interruptions to the linkage and relationship between university campus enclaves and local neighbourhood during the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
With the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019, lockdown, mobility restrictions, and border closure policies were adopted worldwide to control the spread of the virus [1]. Local lockdowns and restrictive policies, such as social distancing, border closures, and movement tracking, were implemented to control the situation and these produced a profound change in urban lifestyles [2,3]. Mobility-restricting and hard border policies introduced during the COVID-19 lockdown affected people’s movement at different scales, from global travel between countries to local travel within cities [5]. The impacts included, but were not limited to, reduction and cessation of local public transport [6], modes of transport used [7], the distribution of accessible resources, and the operation of the urban social and economic system
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